ANAMOSA, IOWA – An Iowa inmate who brutally murdered a child waiting to eat pizza deleted himself in prison.
Owens Arnez Thompson was pronounced dead due to apparent suicide at approximately 8:25 a.m. on Wednesday, April 5, 2023 at the Jones Regional Medical Center where he had been taken. Thompson was 49 years old at the time of his death.
Thompson had been serving a life sentence at the Anamosa State Penitentiary for the crime of Murder 1st Degree from Polk County. His sentence began on July 8, 1996.
The department investigates all suspected suicides within its correctional facilities.
(MAIN PHOTO: Owens Arnez Thompson prison photo)
According to information associated with the court trial, two-year-old Devon Simmons died after his mother’s roommate, defendant Owens Thompson, slammed him into the corner of a bed’s wooden box spring, lacerating his liver. The principal question on Thompson’s appeal from his conviction of first-degree murder is whether he was entitled to a more exacting jury instruction defining the phrase “extreme indifference to human life” as an element of the crime. Thompson also challenges the propriety of the court’s instruction on malice aforethought. Finding no error warranting reversal, we affirm.
A jury could have found the following facts. Around supper time on December 15, 1995, Heather Simmons left her son, Devon, with Owens Thompson while she and Thompson’s brother, Pat, went out to get pizza. Devon was in good spirits when they left, eager at the prospect of eating pizza for supper. When Heather and Pat returned thirty minutes later, however, Devon was not himself. He appeared to be sick to his stomach. He wanted juice, not pizza, and asked to lie down away from the others. He soon vomited. Heather bathed him and then made a quick trip to the store for 7-Up, thinking this would settle his stomach. Upon her return she became alarmed about the child’s lethargy and his difficulty breathing. She had trouble keeping him awake.
At this point Heather wanted to call 911 for emergency assistance but Owens refused to let her. He feared medical personnel would suspect child abuse from the multiple bruises on Devon’s little chest. The bruises were the result of Owen’s recent persistent poking as a means of disciplining Devon for failed toilet training. No call for emergency assistance was made.
Around 9 p.m., Pat returned andrecognizing the child’s critical statusinsisted they take him to the hospital. There, despite *767 the heroic efforts of emergency room physicians and nurses, Devon died around 11 p.m. Except for bruising all over his body, particularly remarkable in the chest area, no reason for Devon’s death was immediately apparent.
An autopsy revealed a lacerated liver that caused Devon to die from internal bleeding. The laceration was described as “significant,” appearing to be the product of severe blunt trauma. Doctors testified that the force needed to deliver such a blow would be equivalent to that experienced by a victim in a car crash.
Preliminary police investigation revealed that Thompson was alone with Devon during the brief period when his condition changed from normal to gravely ill. Thompson first denied any insight into the cause of Devon’s distress, then said that while playing with Devon in the bedroom he had spun him around and accidentally hit the bed. After consulting with his mother, Thompson revealed a more sinister explanation: in a fit of anger over Devon yet again soiling his pants, Thompson grabbed Devon by the arms and, after twirling him in the air, slammed him against the corner of the bed. Thompson insisted he meant only to frighten the child but accidentally struck him on the wooden part of the bed frame.
The State charged Thompson with first-degree murder.
1 thought on “Iowa inmate who brutally murdered a child deletes himself in prison”
He didn’t brutally murder his exes kid. She did. She beat that kid all the time and he took the fall. She was with her kid all day and evening till him and his brother came home and what a coincidence she just had to go get pizza leaving him there alone for the short amount of time. He didn’t do anything to him but he made up a story and they added all the extra. He had a shitty court appointed attorney who didn’t even call his witness’s to speak on what they observed her doing over a long period of time. When someone kills your child you don’t allow the person’s family to visit or raise your kids. 100 percent of people stop all communication. She didn’t. His family still helped her and was and is apart of their lives. She is a shitty mother to those kids they had together. She used heavy drugs even had them took away by cps and had to attend classes. Her Facebook is full of bs ..one of their kids has passed and the other doesn’t care for her. He took the fall because she was pregnant. He didn’t want them to lose their mom and not be in jail preg. She’s sat with the truth for 27 years living her best life knowing he was in there because of her. She’s a disgusting human being. She told him she was sorry for why he was in there and there are letters to prove it. Karmas a bitch and God don’t like ugly. She knows what she did and so does everyone else.