Four Clarinda inmates charged in beating death of another inmate

State officials filed charges Wednesday against four inmates currently serving time at the Clarinda Correctional Facility in southwestern Iowa for their role in the assault of another inmate who was found dead June 14.

The men — Jeremy John McIntosh, 27; Martin Edward Dahlke, 29; Rolland William Jacobsen, 31; and Richard Jason Martin, 34 — are charged with second degree murder.

Martin Edward Dahlke (top left) is accused of directing (from top right, clockwise) Jeremy John McIntosh, Rolland William Jacobsen and Richard Jason Martin to assault a fellow inmate at the Clarinda Correctional Facility. (Photos: Iowa Department of Public Safety)

Alfred Eugene Myre was found dead by a jail employee in the yard area of the Clarinda Correctional Facility. The results of a subsequent autopsy by the State Medical Examiner’s Office in Ankeny showed that Myre died due to an assault. He had numerous internal injuries including a ruptured spleen, which was fatal, according to state officials.

Myre, who was 44 at the time of his death, was in the process of serving a 50-year sentence for second degree murder from Pottawattamie County that began on Sept. 5, 1991. He had been transferred to the Clarinda facility on May 14, one month before his death.

None of the inmates charged in connection with Myre’s death were serving prison terms for violent offenses.

McIntosh and Dahlke were each serving 10-year sentences from Pottawattamie County. McIntosh began his sentence for first degree theft on Sept. 30, 2009. Dahlke began his sentence on March 16 for second degree burglary.

Jacobsen was serving a seven-year sentence out of Harrison and Monona counties for two counts of second degree theft and two counts of driving while barred. He began his term on Oct. 22, 2009.

Martin, who began his term on Oct. 9, 2009, was serving a five-year sentence for prohibited acts without prescription out of Warren County.

According to an affidavit filed with the court in Page County, the inmates charged with the assault are members of an organized prison gang known as “The Peckerwoods.” Dahlke, a leader of the gang, was observed directing Martin, McIntosh and Jacobsen to assault Myre. The assault, according to court documents, lasted less than a minute and ended when Dahlke ordered the others to stop.

… Witnesses observed inmates Martin, McIntosh and Jacobsen assaulting inmate Myre. Multiple inmates described the beating of Myre as one which included many heavy punches, all delivered to the torso area. Many of the heavy punches were delivered to the side and back of Myre. Witnesses described the beating’s intensity by speaking of being able to hear the blows hitting Myre’s body from all the way out in the baseball fields of the yard area.

After the assault, Myre was walked into the yard by Dahlke, where Myre sat down at one of the picnic tables located in the middle of the yard area. Soon after reaching the picnic area, Myre fell backwards, unconscious onto the ground. CPR was immediately performed by the [Department of Correction] officers nearby. Myre died soon thereafter…

All four continue to be held at the Clarinda Correctional Facility pending further action on the new charges.

The Clarinda facility was established in 1980 as an adult male medium-security prison to serve primarily chemically-dependent, mentally retarded and socially inadequate offenders, according to the Iowa Department of Corrections. It is located on the same grounds as the state’s Mental Health Institute.