Prosecutor, victim’s family, say justice was done in murder verdict for former Charles City man

By Bob Fenske, editor@nhtrib.com

As far as Chickasaw County Attorney David Laudner is concerned, each of the 26 witnesses called to the stand during the first-degree murder trial of a former Charles City resident last week played a part in the result – the guilty verdict jurors handed down late last Thursday afternoon, May 23.

The jury deliberated for a little more than an hour before returning with the verdict against 41-year-old Randy Patrie for the killing of 70-year-old Kenneth Gallmeyer, a retired Clarksville grocery store owner, in his rural Nashua home in the fall of 2012.

“To go through 26 witnesses in essentially 2½ days, it really was a building block approach,” Laudner said. “They all had important pieces to the puzzle to add into the overall picture we were trying to paint for the jury.”

Patrie’s trial began with jury selection on Monday, opening statements were given Tuesday morning and then prosecutors Frank Severino Jr. of the Iowa Attorney General’s Office and Laudner  began laying out their case to the jury.

Witnesses included Patrie’s ex-wife and uncle, law enforcement officers, crime lab technicians, Gallmeyer’s friends, neighbors and professional colleagues, as well as two former inmates who served time in federal prison with Patrie.

Both inmates, who had since been released from prison, returned to Iowa to testify for the prosecution that Patrie had admitted to them he killed Gallmeyer.

Witnesses said Gallmeyer was shot and killed in his bed and Patrie ransacked the house in search of a safe that contained cash and a coin collection. He never found the safe because Gallmeyer had moved it to an insurance office in Charles City.

Patrie did not testify, and his attorneys, Steven J. Drahozal and Theresa Sampson Brown from Dubuque, did not call any witnesses.

The Gallmeyer family released a statement later Thursday evening after the verdict had been announced, thanking those who had worked on the case.

“This has been a case of poor circumstances and unforeseen problems,” the statement read. “Our family is eternally grateful to all the parties who made this legal case possible and the 1,000s of hours of effort to make this case.”

Laudner said he was “very grateful the jury delivered justice to the Gallmeyer family after nearly 12 years of waiting.”

Gallmeyer’s body was discovered on Oct. 4, 2012, when Chickasaw County Sheriff’s Office deputies were called to do a welfare check at his home north of Nashua.

Patrie became the chief suspect, and in early 2014 he pleaded guilty to possession of firearms by a felon as an armed career criminal, and possession of sawed-off shotguns.

In June of that year, U.S. District Court Judge Linda R. Reade invoked an “upward departure” at Patrie’s sentencing and said she was handing down a life sentence because she believed Patrie had shot Gallmeyer during the burglary.

Patrie appealed his life sentence on constitutional grounds and an appellate court overturned it. He was subsequently sentenced to 20 years in federal prison.

Laudner said the Gallmeyer case was one of several on his desk when he took over as county attorney in the fall of 2021, and after conferring with several people they decided to pursue murder charges.

Laudner said he appreciated the efforts made by the agencies involved in the case, including the Chickasaw County Sheriff’s Office, the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, Charles City Police Department and the Iowa Attorney General’s Office.

He said having the Iowa Attorney General’s Office involved in the case, providing a prosecutor with high-felony level experience, as well as helping to coordinate witnesses and submit evidence, was an invaluable resource.

He also praised the work done by law enforcement personnel, especially in a case that didn’t go to trial for almost a dozen years.

A sentencing date for Patrie has yet to be set, but under Iowa law the mandatory sentence for first degree murder is life in prison without the possibility of parole.