Famous Iowa Mugshot Records
A booking photo captures a single moment. It cannot tell you how a case ended. Iowa cases that made headlines prove the point. To read one properly, start with the agency that took or holds the image. The filed complaint and the court docket carry the case itself. An appellate opinion may affirm a verdict, reverse it, or explain the reasoning behind it.
Six cases appear below. Each one rests on Iowa court opinions, official records, and named reporting. No photo is reproduced here. Every row lists the known disposition and the most direct record route, plus where a request for the original booking image should start. When the source never names the holding agency, the request path stays qualified rather than guessed.
Six Iowa Cases and Record Paths
The table splits three things apart: arrest context, court outcome, and photo custody. A booking image never settles a disposition. Follow the linked case, then ask the named custodian about the original photo.
| Case, year, county | Disposition and authoritative record | Original booking-image request path |
|---|---|---|
| Cristhian Bahena Rivera, 2018, Poweshiek County | First-degree-murder conviction affirmed in State v. Bahena Rivera, No. 21-1202; the official arrest warrant and complaint records the original charge. | Ask the Poweshiek County Sheriff or booking custodian, or the DCI record holder named in the file. |
| Jerry Lynn Burns, arrest in 2018, Linn/Scott County proceedings | First-degree-murder conviction affirmed in the Iowa Supreme Court's State v. Burns, No. 20-1150. | Ask the arresting or booking agency identified in the contemporaneous file; the research does not name one single original-photo custodian. |
| Todd Michael Mullis, 2019, Delaware County | First-degree-murder conviction and denial of a new trial affirmed in the Court of Appeals' State v. Mullis, No. 20-1173. | Ask the Delaware County Sheriff or the booking agency named in the record. |
| Alexander Ken Jackson, 2021, Story County/Ames area | The 2025 Court of Appeals decision in State v. Jackson, No. 23-0483 affirmed three first-degree-murder convictions; the official trial file is identified as the Linn County case. | Ask the arresting or booking agency identified in the case file; do not treat a current-custody portal as a 2021 archive. |
| Chris Soules, 2017, Buchanan County | He pleaded guilty to a reduced aggravated-misdemeanor charge of leaving the scene of an accident resulting in serious injury; a judge approved a two-year suspended prison term. See Iowa Courts Online and Radio Iowa's sentencing report. | Ask the Buchanan County Sheriff or jail booking custodian for the original booking record. |
| Earl Booth-Harris, 2015, Des Moines County | First-degree-murder conviction affirmed in the Iowa Supreme Court's State v. Booth-Harris, No. 18-0002. | Ask the arresting or booking agency's records custodian; a news or court-arrival photo is not necessarily a mugshot. |
Note: The charge entered at booking can change; the court docket and opinion give the later procedural result.
Rivera's Complaint and Appeal
Cristhian Bahena Rivera was arrested in Poweshiek County in 2018. The charge was first-degree murder in the death of Mollie Tibbetts. The county's arrest warrant and complaint list the case number and the charge. It also lists the bond. It names the issuing court. The Iowa Court of Appeals later affirmed the first-degree-murder conviction. That appellate decision is the authoritative source for the outcome.
Want the original booking image? Ask the Poweshiek County Sheriff or booking custodian, or DCI if that agency holds it. The warrant and the appeal cover charge and result. Neither replaces the booking file itself. A newsroom photo could be agency-supplied or a courtroom shot. Confirm the source before calling it a mugshot.
Burns's Iowa Court File
Jerry Lynn Burns was arrested in 2018 for Michelle Martinko's 1979 killing in Cedar Rapids. The Iowa Supreme Court opinion walks through the DNA and forensic-genealogy work. It affirms the first-degree-murder conviction. Two dates matter here. The crime dates to 1979. The arrest dates to 2018. Each of those dates belongs to a different part of the file. A booking photo ties to the 2018 arrest, while the appeal covers the court's review.
For the disposition, the opinion is the authoritative appellate source. The Linn County or Scott County district-court case holds the trial record. Request the original booking image from the agency named in the booking file. A court-arrival photo or a later news portrait is not that record.
Note: The 1979 crime date and 2018 arrest date describe separate events in one case history.
Mullis and the Delaware File
Todd Michael Mullis was arrested in Delaware County in 2019 for the death of Amy Mullis. The case did not end at booking. The Court of Appeals affirmed his first-degree-murder conviction. It also upheld the denial of a new trial. So any summary of the case should pair the original arrest charge with that later outcome. The appellate opinion and the Delaware County district-court docket hold the full history. A news photo is secondary material. Want the original booking picture? Ask the Delaware County Sheriff, or whatever booking agency the record itself names. Delaware's current inmate cards mix photo availability. A blank card today says nothing about a 2019 booking, so ask the custodian for the case date and booking number whenever those details are known.
Jackson's Iowa Trial and Appeal
Alexander Ken Jackson stood charged after the June 2021 deaths of his parents and his sister. The verdicts came in. In 2025 the Court of Appeals affirmed three first-degree-murder convictions. That decision recounts the case in detail. The official trial-court record sits in Linn County, as the appeals decision identifies. Those records settle the outcome. A newsroom image does not. For the original arrest or booking photo, go to the agency that took it or holds it, per the case file. The Central Iowa Police-to-Citizen catalog tracks current custody. It cannot stand in for a 2021 archive, so ask the identified agency about its retained image and keep the court case number separate from the photo request.
Soules and a Changed Charge
Chris Soules crashed his truck in Buchanan County in 2017, and the collision turned fatal. Officers arrested him that night. The first charge was a felony: leaving the scene of a fatal accident. That is not how the case ended. Soules later pleaded guilty to a reduced aggravated misdemeanor, leaving the scene of an accident causing serious injury. A judge approved a suspended two-year prison term. Radio Iowa's sentencing report documents the plea and the term. A contemporaneous ABC report covers the arrest itself. Iowa Courts Online holds the Buchanan County court file. The disposition there matters more than any booking entry. For the booking photo itself, ask the Buchanan County Sheriff or the jail's booking custodian.
Booth-Harris's Iowa Court Record
Earl Booth-Harris stood trial for the 2015 shooting death of Deonte Carter in Burlington. The case was heard in Des Moines County. Defense lawyers raised an identification challenge. The Iowa Supreme Court's opinion walks through that dispute and the trial record. It affirmed the first-degree-murder conviction. Any booking image sits with the arresting agency. A photo from a news report or a courthouse arrival should carry that label, not a booking label, unless the agency confirms it.
Note: A newsroom copy does not establish which agency holds the original booking image.
Trace Another Iowa Arrest
Start with the county of booking. The rest varies by county. A jail roster may show current custody and some recent releases. Many lists are current-only, text-only, or never posted online. The statewide arrest and booking overview explains how county sources differ, and the Iowa County Directory routes you to sheriff pages and the agency that may hold the booking file.
- Record the person's full name, the approximate arrest date, and the likely county. Distinguish the arresting agency from the jail that took the person into custody.
- Check the relevant official county roster or recent-arrest feed. Treat a missing result as inconclusive when the page is current-custody only or its scope is unclear.
- Ask the sheriff, jail, or booking custodian for the arrest record and original photo. State the date and case number if known, and ask whether the image is held by another agency.
- Search the trial-court case and read the docket through to its disposition. If a public record is not online, contact the county clerk or use the Judicial Branch's public-record request route.
Older booking photos rarely survive in a current roster. How long an image lasts depends on the custodian and the retention schedule. A court disposition does not erase every copy. Separate copies can linger in agency files or online. So send a focused request to the agency that created or kept the image. If the answer points to another custodian, follow that trail instead of assuming a news outlet holds the original.
Iowa Court Search, No Photos
The Iowa Courts Online trial-court search is the entry point. It locates public case entries and docket details. A query can surface the county, case number, charge filings, and disposition. It is not the complete official file, though. Some records stay confidential. Others can be viewed only at the clerk's office or a courthouse terminal.
The official search screen shows where a public trial-court query begins, not a gallery of arrest images.
