Records Show Murder Suspect’s Violent Past

By Dave Franzman, Reporter

KCRG-TV9 News

Tools

By Aaron Hepker

CEDAR RAPIDS - Kyle Marin was in legal trouble years before prosecutors charged him with two murders Sunday. He's accused of beating and stabbing 18-year-old Kirkwood students Molly Edmondson and Katrina Hill to death.

“Kyle had problems with anger and we all knew that, but never to that extent.” Andrew Arey says he grew up with Kyle Marin in North Liberty. And his legal battles before this weekend were no secret. But Arey says seeing a man he hung around with up on murder charges is hard to accept. “It was shocking. It was like me being a friend of his, what role could I have played in preventing it. Especially over the last few months, his attitude toward life and the people around him began to change.”

In October 2003, Marin was charged as a juvenile with pointing a shotgun at someone to get a video game console. There were then two criminal mischief cases. The most violent episode was a willful injury conviction. Marin beat and hospitalized someone and threaten to hit them with a Brick saying, “This will be the last thing you see."

Still, corrections officials say nothing in that record told them a double murder charge lay in Marin's future. Sixth District Corrections Director Gary Hinzman told KCRG-TV9 News, “We have no magic wand to say who's going to jump up next and be a problem for us. If we knew what, we could stop it before it happened.”

Marin spent months in this Coralville halfway house on the willful injury charge and was still on probation. Corrections officials say they were in the process of revoking Marin's probation when he was charged with murder. That would have put him back in a halfway house or even prison.

Conversation Guidelines

Be Kind

Don't use abusive, offensive, threatening, racist, vulgar or sexually-oriented language.
Don't attack someone personally. Keep it civil and be responsible.

Share Knowledge

Be truthful. Share what you know and what you are passionate about.
What more do you want to learn? Keep it simple.

Stay focused

Promote lively and healthy debate. Stay on topic. Ask questions and give feedback on the story's topic.

Report Trouble

Help us maintain a quality comment section by reporting comments that are offensive. If you see a comment that is offensive, or you feel violates our guidelines, simply click on the "x" to the far right of the comment to report it.


read the full guidelines here »

Commenting will be disabled on stories dealing with the following subject matter: Violent crime, sexual abuse, Amber Alerts, Operation Quickfinds and suicides.

More Good Stuff

What's On KCRG