Jury selection is underway in the murder trial of an inmate accused of killing another prisoner at the Iowa State Penitentiary.
Thirty-five-year-old Anthony Michael Koehlhoeffer is charged with second-degree murder, a Class B felony, in the death of 64-year-old inmate Gary Showalter Sr.
The criminal complaint states the assault happened around 4 p.m. on December 19, 2024, in the prison kitchen, where both men had been assigned cleaning duties.
Investigators say the two were involved in a verbal altercation that ended with Koehlhoffer beating Showalter to death, an act recorded on surveillance video.
Body camera footage from correctional officers reportedly captured Koehlhoeffer saying Showalter “brought it upon himself.”
Showalter had been serving a life sentence after a Wapello County jury found him guilty in September 2023 of first-degree murder in the death of Helen Showalter. Her body was later discovered in the Des Moines River. He began serving his sentence in October 2023.
Koehlhoeffer is currently serving time for a 2010 second-degree robbery conviction out of Jefferson County related to the robbery of the Pilot Grove Savings Bank in Fairfield.
If convicted of second-degree murder, Koehlhoeffer could face up to 50 years in prison.
