Funeral arrangements have been announced for the two Iowa National Guard members killed earlier this month while on duty in Syria.

Staff Sgts. William Nathaniel “Nate” Howard, Edgar Brian Torres-Tovar and a civilian interpreter, Ayad Mansoor Sakat, of Michigan, were killed Dec. 13 by an attacker who targeted a convoy of American and Syrian forces before being shot dead. The Associated Press reported the gunman stormed a meeting between U.S. and Syrian security officials in Palmyra, Syria, and opened fire after clashing with Syrian guards.

Their bodies arrived back in Iowa at 1 p.m. Dec. 24 in a private ceremony. Blue Star Mothers of America – Iowa Chapter asked supporters to line Fleur Drive from the Des Moines International Airport to Interstate 235 to welcome the soldiers home.

The soldiers’ funerals are open to the public.

When is Sgt. Nate Howard’s funeral?

Visitation and funeral services for Howard, 29, of Marshalltown, will be Saturday, Dec. 27 at the Marshalltown High School Roundhouse, 1602 S. Second Ave., with visitation beginning at 9 a.m.

Further details on funeral services is available on the Mitchell Family Funeral Home website.

After arriving in Des Moines on Wednesday, a procession carrying Howard’s body will go through Des Moines on Fleur Drive to Interstate 235 and north to Interstate 35 to Ames. From there, the procession will head east on U.S. Highway 30 to Marshalltown then north on Center Street/Highway 14 to Iowa Avenue and on to the funeral home.

The procession will be led by the Des Moines Police Department, Iowa State Highway Patrol, Marshall County Sheriff’s Department, Meskwaki police and the Tama Police Department.

Howard is survived by his wife, Arianna Howard; his father, Brian and wife, Andrea; his mother, Misty Bunn and husband, Jeff; his brother, SSgt James Roelsgard; stepbrothers, Josh Bunn and wife, Modestie, and Travis Bunn; as well as his grandparents: William Eugene and Pat Neville, Vicki Brindle, and Martin and Ruth Roelsgard.

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When is Sgt. Edgar Torres-Tovar’s funeral?

Visitation for Torres-Tovar, 25, of Des Moines will be Sunday, Dec. 28 with funeral services and burial on Monday, Dec. 29. Final arrangements will be announced by Hamilton’s Southtown Funeral Home.

Torres-Tovar is survived by his parents, Hugo Torres and Isabel Tovar; brothers, Samuel Torres and Daniel Torres; sister, Krystal Torres and her children, Castiel and Christopher; paternal grandparents, Jose Torres and Rita Garcia; girlfriend, Yareli Duran; and numerous aunts, uncles and cousins.

Kevin Baskins covers jobs and the economy for the Des Moines Register. Reach him at kbaskins@registermedia.com.

Iowa State football running back Carson Hansen announced on Dec. 23 that he “will be pursuing new opportunities with my last year of eligibility.”

• The Iowa Supreme Court overturned the sexual abuse conviction of a West Des Moines doctor.
• The court ruled that allowing the child victim to testify via one-way video violated the Iowa Constitution.
• This decision is one of several that has set Iowa apart from other states on the issue of remote testimony.

The Iowa Supreme Court has overturned the conviction of a West Des Moines doctor found guilty of sexually abusing a child, ruling that allowing the victim to testify via one-way video violated the Iowa Constitution.

The court on Tuesday, Dec. 23, reversed the conviction of Lynn Melvin Lindaman, a longtime central Iowa surgeon who practiced at the Lindaman Orthopaedics clinic in West Des Moines before he was charged in 2023 with second-degree sexual abuse. The case was remanded for a new trial.

The decision is the latest in a string of rulings that have set Iowa apart as the only state in the country whose highest court has barred one-way video testimony in criminal trials, even in cases involving child victims. 

Those decisions already have begun reshaping prosecutions across the state and have prompted lawmakers to launch the process of amending the Iowa Constitution. The change would ultimately require voter approval.

Lindaman, now 75, was convicted after a jury trial in Polk County. Prosecutors alleged that on June 26, 2023, he committed a sex act in Ankeny against a child under the age of 10. A second count of sexual abuse was dismissed prior to trial. He was sentenced to 50 years in prison, with a mandatory minimum of 42½ years because of a prior sexual predatory offense in 1976. He also faced a separate and now-dismissed civil lawsuit from an Iowa woman who claimed he sexually assaulted her in 1975.

The Iowa Offender Search still lists Lindaman as in custody of the Iowa Medical & Classification Center.

On appeal, Lindaman argued that his constitutional rights were violated when the district court allowed the child to testify from another room via one-way closed-circuit television, rather than from the witness stand in the courtroom.

“Today’s decision from the Iowa Supreme Court is an important win for Lynn Lindaman and a major step toward a fair result,” said Lucas Taylor, the attorney representing Lindaman. “Although the court did not rule in our favor on every issue, this ruling recognizes serious errors in the prior proceedings and gives Mr. Lindaman the chance to present his defense to a new jury.”

In a 4-3 ruling issued earlier this year in State v. White, the Iowa Supreme Court agreed with that argument, holding that one-way video testimony violates the confrontation clause of the Iowa Constitution. Writing for the majority in that case, Justice David May said that “when the accused and the witness are prevented from seeing each other, there is no face-to-face confrontation, and the Iowa Constitution is not satisfied.”

The ruling came despite U.S. Supreme Court precedent allowing such testimony and laws in many other states permitting it. Under the Iowa statute the court overturned, judges had been allowed to authorize remote testimony by minors, or witnesses with mental illnesses or disabilities, if a judge found that “trauma caused by testifying in the physical presence of the defendant … would impair the minor’s ability to communicate.”

The White decision arose from an Osceola County case, but its effects have since spread and courts across Iowa have begun hearing challenges from defendants convicted in cases where one-way video testimony was used.