Karina Cooper, right, listens during a pre-trial hearing held on Friday, June 20, in Tama County District Court in Toledo ahead of her first-degree murder trial set to begin July 1 in Linn County. Cooper, a longtime rural Traer resident, is facing trial in connection with the June 2021 death of her husband Ryan Cooper. Also pictured, defense attorneys Aaron Hawbaker (left) and Nichole Watt (center). PHOTO BY RUBY F. MCALLISTER

TOLEDO – Barring any unforeseen circumstances, Karina Sue Cooper’s first-degree murder trial will proceed as scheduled beginning July 1 in Linn County.

On Friday, June 20, Karina Cooper, 47, and her attorneys Aaron Hawbaker and Nichole Watt both with the Waterloo Public Defender’s Office, along with Assistant Attorney General Michael Ringle and Assistant Tama County Attorney Geneva Williams all appeared in person for a joint case management/pre-trial conference in Tama County District Court at the courthouse in Toledo. Also present were attorney Melissa Nine, appointed guardian ad litem (GAL), Tama County Investigator Trevor Killian, Tama County Jail Administrator Brian Randall, several members of the public, a videographer from KWWL, and a producer with CBS News’ true-crime series 48 Hours. Chief Judge Lars G. Anderson presided over the hearing.

Karina Cooper, a longtime rural Traer resident and mother, was arrested and charged on Feb. 19, 2024, with first-degree murder in connection with her husband Ryan Cooper’s death; she pleaded not guilty to the single Class A felony charge.

She was arrested following a more than two-and-a-half year investigation by both the Tama County Sheriff’s Office and the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation into Ryan Cooper’s death after he was found deceased in the home they shared west of Traer in the early morning hours of June 18, 2021, following a 911 call from the residence.

According to the criminal complaint, a deputy found Ryan Cooper lying in a recliner with what appeared to be a gunshot wound to the front of his face, while Karina Cooper was allegedly observed to be sitting on top of him.

PHOTO BY RUBY F. MCALLISTER

During the roughly 30-minute hearing on Friday, several motions in limine – pretrial motions seeking the exclusion of specific evidence or arguments – were addressed as well as trial logistics.

After twice being reset, the approximately 10-day jury trial is set to take place at the Linn County Courthouse in Cedar Rapids beginning on Tuesday, July 1, at 9 a.m.

Judge Anderson said both parties had agreed to no witnesses being called on the first day of trial.

“[Tuesday] will be spent with jury selection,” he said. “If we’re done with jury selection before the end of the day, we’ll just adjourn early and start with opening statements on Wednesday.”

The 12-member jury will be drawn from a total of 36 people, Anderson explained, with both the defense and the State receiving 10 strikes each, leaving two alternates plus an additional two strikes.

PHOTO BY RUBY F. MCALLISTER

Snapchat messages

As part of the defense’s pretrial motions, Cooper’s attorneys asked that the State not be allowed to introduce Snapchat text exchanges between Karina Cooper and Huston William Danker – a motion the State fully resisted.

In late April 2024, Danker, 27, formerly of Traer, was also arrested and charged with first-degree murder for allegedly acting in concert with Karina Cooper to kill her husband. Danker also pleaded not guilty. His trial is currently scheduled to begin Aug. 12 at 9 a.m. in Johnson County. As of press time, Danker remains behind bars in the Marshall County Jail on a $1 million bond.

“Via deposition, the State acknowledges there is no way to determine if the Snapchat text exchanges are complete due to unknown and proprietary data overwriting of the Snapchat application,” Hawbaker wrote as part of Karina Cooper’s motion in limine filing. “As a consequence, the information the State seeks to introduce cannot be certified as complete. In the absence of the complete context of conversations taking place with Snapchat, the introduction of conversations will mislead or confuse the jury and should be excluded.”

“What is identifiable is who the sender is and who it was sent to. But there is no other relevant information,” Hawbaker told the judge on Friday, further explaining the motion. “In this case, there is no way to cure the incompleteness of those records in the context of whatever texts were exchanged. And because of that … holes will be filled, the jury will be misled, and improper conclusions can be reached.”

The State then admitted into evidence State’s Exhibit 1, “a summation of the most important Snapchat messages” at issue between Karina Cooper and Danker, obtained by digital forensic experts and containing timestamps and dates, Ringle explained.

Ringle disagreed with the defense’s reasoning for excluding the messages.

“The issue here is that the State has incomplete records. And by incomplete records, what we mean is we do not have every Snap message sent between these two parties. That’s not because of the functioning of Snapchat. That’s not because of the way that their app functions. That’s because of Karina Cooper and Huston Danker and efforts that they made to conceal communications between them.”

The messages, Ringle said, were obtained from Karina Cooper’s cellphone and State’s Exhibit 1 includes messages “related to the murder of her husband Ryan Cooper.” He later characterized several of the messages as “quite explicit” and “quite clear,” while flowing in a “conversational fashion.”

“These are manually deleted messages. The State was able to obtain over 1,000 messages from Karina Cooper’s Snapchat communications with other people. The only ones that she manually deleted were the ones that the court has before it.”

As of press time, Judge Anderson had yet to issue a ruling on the matter.

‘Bad acts evidence’

The defense also took issue with one specific statement being used as evidence during the trial.

“The allegation that Ms. Cooper said something about wanting to kill Ryan (Cooper) back in the day – way removed from the events of time. I think it was four months out roughly, we’re not entirely sure,” Hawbaker said of the statement in question. “It’s so remote … as to be irrelevant, and I think that would lead to an improper conclusion. … It was just sort of a joking [statement]. You know, sometimes things like that are said, that don’t really mean that.”

Ringle characterized the statement in question as a “threat” to shoot Ryan Cooper made by Karina Cooper before further stating that the witnesses “who heard that particular statement” were deposed by the defense.

“I don’t understand how it would be couched as a prior bad act,” Ringle said, addressing the judge. “The State’s position is that this isn’t a prior act – this is the homicide. This is information that goes to premeditation, goes to motive. There’s going to be a [number of similar statements] that are essentially Ms. Cooper’s general disposition towards Ryan.”

After the discussion, Judge Anderson said he planned to rule on the matter by this past Monday, June 23.

Livestream request

On June 23, an expanded news media request was filed with the court for permission to livestream Karina Cooper’s trial. Multiple broadcast media outlets have requested video coverage including Court TV, Dateline, 48 Hours, KCRG, KWWL, and KGAN.

In the final moments of the June 20 hearing, Judge Anderson addressed the anticipated livestreaming request in light of the possibility of a minor providing testimony during the trial.

“The State made a request that that not be livestreamed. The defense [was in agreement with that],” Anderson said before turning to Melissa Nine, guardian ad litem, and asking, “I’m assuming, correct me if I’m wrong, but you were also in agreement with that not being livestreamed?”

“I certainly am, your honor,” she replied.

At the time of his death, Ryan Cooper and Karina Cooper were the parents of three minor children. According to the criminal complaint, Karina Cooper’s three children were inside the home on the morning of June 18, 2021, when the first responding deputy arrived to find Ryan Cooper dead.

Sun Courier Note: On June 24, Guardian ad Litem Melissa Nine filed an objection to expanded news media coverage of Karina Cooper’s minor child’s testimony in the interest of protecting the child. “By disallowing expanded new media coverage for the duration of the child’s testimony, any additional trauma and emotional harm to the child will be significantly lessened,” Nine wrote. No order by the judge had been made as of press time.