Charles City man charged with March slaying of Jasper County resident

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

A Charles City man with a long history of criminal convictions was arrested in Charles City Thursday morning and charged with the March murder of a man in Jasper County.

Randy Louis Linderman, 52, was taken into custody about 10:25 a.m. in the 2000 block of Rockford Road, said Capt. Brandon Franke of the Charles City Police Department.

Franke said the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation and deputies from Jasper County made the arrest and Charles City police were available to assist if needed, so he didn’t have any more information on the circumstances of the arrest.

Linderman has been charged with first-degree murder in the death of Jose Luis C. Ramirez Berber, age 61, on March 6 in rural Jasper County, according to a press release from the DCI.

Linderman was transported to Jasper County, where he is being held in the Jasper County Jail in Newton.

DCI Special Agent in Charge Michael Motsinger said in the statement that Ramirez Berber was discovered dead in his home on March 6. An autopsy by the state medical examiner’s office determined the cause of death was blunt force trauma and the death was ruled a homicide.

Ramirez Berber’s home is located about 1½ miles south of Interstate 80 near Newton, about 26 miles east of Des Moines.

According to a story in the Newton Daily News, Ramirez Berber was found deceased after officials received a 911 call to 4252 Maple Street in reference to an unresponsive individual. When law enforcement and Newton Fire and EMS arrived, they found Berber lying on the floor unresponsive.

Ramirez Berber’s neighbors and friends described him as “neighborly” and “super friendly,” according to the report in the Newton newspaper. According to one neighbor, Ramirez Berber had lived in the home for 4½ years.

The DCI statement said the arrest was a result of a joint investigation by the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, Charles City Police Department, Floyd County Sheriff’s Office, and the Jasper County Sheriff’s Office.

Linderman was sentenced in Floyd County District Court to two years in prison in 2001 after pleading guilty to a 2000 assault with a dangerous weapon charge, according to the Iowa Courts website.

He is listed on the Iowa Sex Offender Registry for third-degree sexual abuse of an adult female in Floyd County, committed in 2001.

Linderman has numerous other charges, convictions and prison sentences as well, including assault causing bodily injury or mental illness, third-degree theft, second-degree theft, possession of stolen property, violating his sex offender registry requirement, tampering with a witness or juror, probation violations and contempt of court charges, as well as traffic infractions and hunting and fishing violations including fishing without a license and possessing over the legal catch limit in April this year.