Coralville, Iowa, — A rural Merrill man who was convicted in September of first-degree murder in the death of his stepson and was sentenced in October to life in prison has died while in incarceration after serving a little more than three months of his life prison sentence.
According to the Iowa Department of Corrections, 84-year-old Thomas Jordan Knapp was pronounced dead due to natural causes at 10:36 a.m. on Thursday, January 19, 2023 while in hospice at the Iowa Medical and Classification Center where he had been housed due to chronic illness.
Knapp had been serving a life sentence for the crime of Murder 1st Degree and other charges from Plymouth County. His sentence began on October 14, 2022.
Knapp had been found guilty of the shooting death of 51-year-old Kevin Juzek in May 2020, at Knapp’s home near Merrill. Knapp was also sentenced to up to ten years for willful injury in Juzek’s death and five years for injuring Knapp’s wife in the same incident.
