ANAMOSA, Iowa (AP) — An inmate who confessed in court to using a hammer to kill a nurse and correctional officer during an escape attempt at the Anamosa State Penitentiary has been sentenced to life in prison.
Thomas Woodard Jr. was sentenced Thursday after pleading guilty earlier this month to two counts of first-degree murder, as well as to kidnapping and attempted murder counts. Prosecutors say Woodard and his co-defendant, 29-year-old Michael Dutcher, carried out the March 23 hammer attacks at the Anamosa facility on 50-year-old nurse Lorena Schulte of Cedar Rapids and 46-year-old correctional officer Robert McFarland of Ely. Woodard also admitted to bludgeoning an inmate who tried to stop the attack and briefly holding another female employee as a hostage.