(Radio Iowa) – An inmate has died after spending the past 34 years in prison for murdering a Cedar Rapids couple. The Iowa Department of Corrections says 77-year-old Gregory Dean Connor died last week in a hospice unit inside the state prison system.
He was convicted of shooting friends Charles and Lorena Martin to death, pouring gasoline on their bodies and setting their house on fire in 1991. Connor was identified as a suspect when he arrived at a hospital on the same night with severe burns on his hands and face. He claimed in court the real murderers had attacked him.
Connor was sentenced to life in prison in 1992.
And, the Iowa Dept. of Corrections reports an inmate at the Iowa Medical and Classification Center died on the hospice unit at 4:46 p.m. on July 22, 2026. Harry Barthmeol Sisco, age 92, was serving for crimes committed in Scott County. Sisco’s sentence began on August 19, 1991.
