Originally published June 26, 2006, in the Charles City Press
1st place, Best News Story, Iowa Newspaper Association Better Newspapers Contest, 2007
CHARLES CITY, Iowa -- James Raymond says a witness for the state in his first-degree murder case is Jesse Patchin’s real killer.
Raymond, 25, of Clarksville, was arrested on Oct. 26, 2005. Court documents claim he murdered Patchin, 20, of Waterloo, in Floyd County on Oct. 1, 2005, after the two argued over a drug transaction.
However, Raymond said trial documents show another man — his uncle Charles L. Gallmeyer, 54, of Lime Springs — admitted delivering the five stab wounds that an autopsy report states killed Patchin.
Following a recent interview in which Raymond admitted to being present during Patchin’s murder, he provided the Charles City Press with copies of several documents available to him as a defendant. Raymond said he obtained the copies from his former public defender, David Staudt of Waterloo.
Floyd County Attorney Marilyn Dettmer said that she could not comment on evidence in the case. She also declined to address Raymond’s interview, stating that the reporter may be called to testify at trial.
Trial documents' confidentiality waived
Gallmeyer, a former suspect in Patchin’s murder according to court documents, said in a deposition on Jan. 24 that he stabbed Patchin repeatedly, but that Raymond stabbed Patchin first in the neck.
“(Raymond) stuck the blade all the way in and the blood was spewing and I was trying to get out of the car and, umm, he lost control of Patchin’s body and they went down. I got out of the car, managed to get around to the other side of the car, and (Raymond) was down on top of Patchin,” Gallmeyer said in his sworn statement.
“(Raymond) says stick him, Chuck, stick him. And I lost my head and I pulled out my boot knife and I lost the sheath. I left it laying on the ground. Couldn’t find it again. I was panicked or whatever. I wanted to get out of there. I stuck the victim I’m guessing three or four times in the side and in the back. I believe he was layin’ on his belly, but he may have been half — you know, he may have been on his side a little bit more than what I thought. But I do remember sticking him more than once, two, three, maybe four times.”
Raymond refutes Gallmeyer’s account of Patchin’s murder. Raymond said he did not stab Patchin, who he’d met a few weeks earlier through a mutual friend in Waterloo.
“I didn’t touch him at all, not at all,” Raymond said.
An autopsy report from State Medical Examiner Julia Goodin shows no evidence of the neck injury Gallmeyer alleges Raymond inflicted to kill Patchin.
Instead, Goodin said, Patchin died of “multiple (probable five) stab wounds to the chest, back and abdomen.”
Raymond said the autopsy is proof that Gallmeyer “lied” when he made a deal with prosecutors that freed him from jail.
The day following Gallmeyer’s deposition, he was released from jail after having been held for almost four months as a material witness.
Dettmer issued a statement that, “the State has reached an agreement with material witness Charles Loran Gallmeyer to testify against James Dean Raymond in the murder of Jesse Patchin.”
One condition of the agreement, Dettmer said, was that Gallmeyer be released from jail, under the supervision of the Department of Corrections.
Gallmeyer is reportedly living in Charles City, but could not be located for comment.
No charges have been filed against him with the Floyd County Clerk of Court.
“Chuck got a pretty good deal. Right now, I think he’s standing at three years probation — a 10-year suspended sentence and three years probation,” Raymond said.
“That’s exactly the deal I understand he has right now, even after he admitted to stabbing (Patchin).”
Gallmeyer, in his deposition, also admits to choosing the location where Patchin was murdered and to burning some of Patchin’s belongings afterwards.
“I don’t understand why they let him go,” Raymond said.
He reported that Gallmeyer, also as part of the deal he accepted, led Investigator Travis Bartz of the Floyd County Sheriff’s Office to Patchin’s body in a rural area near Greene.
Dettmer stated the body was found by “law enforcement acting on a tip.” According the autopsy report, a deputy sheriff was directed to the body by information from Dettmer. She has not stated the source of the information that led to Patchin’s discovery.
Gallmeyer gave his sworn statement in Dettmer’s office four days after Patchin’s body was recovered on Jan. 20. In the deposition, Special Agent Terry Cowman of the state Division of Criminal Investigation shows Gallmeyer an aerial photo of “the place that we were at other day,” in referring to the site where Patchin’s body was found.
Raymond speaks out
Oct. 1, 2005, was the second night in a row Raymond said he visited a mobile home at 3030 270th St. with Patchin.
Raymond’s brother Larry Raymond and Dave Gallmeyer, another uncle, resided at the rental property near Nashua owned by Lynn and Janet Rinken of rural Clarksville.
Raymond said he, Patchin and a female University of Northern Iowa student, whose car they drove, arrived at the mobile home sometime after midnight.
Raymond said he helped Patchin sell methamphetamine by introducing him to relatives in Floyd County where meth reportedly sells for about $15 more per quarter ounce. He said Patchin needed money because he was being evicted from his rental house and moving back in with his mother.
However, an evening of fun and playing foosball turned ugly, Raymond said, when Gallmeyer allegedly purchased methamphetamine from Patchin. Raymond said Patchin used some of Gallmeyer’s own “cut” as filler in the meth he sold.
“(Patchin) put something in the dope to make it look like there was more there than what there was,” Raymond said. “He used Chuck’s own weapon against him, basically.”
Raymond said he and Patchin got into an argument in the living room after Gallmeyer and others allegedly complained about the quality of the methamphetamine.
“We were kind of arguing back and forth. And I think that what really started it was that he was ready to leave. He wanted to go back to Waterloo,” Raymond said.
However, Raymond said he could not wake up the UNI student, who was asleep in a room locked from inside.
“(Patchin) knew before we even left Waterloo that we were going to be there all night,” Raymond said. “But I told him he was free to leave. I told him if he wanted to, he could walk.”
Patchin started walking towards Charles City sometime near daybreak, Raymond said.
About half an hour later, Raymond said, he climbed into the UNI student’s car with Gallmeyer with the understanding they were going to Casey’s General Store in Nashua for cigarettes.
“I didn’t know we were going to look for Jesse though,” Raymond said. “When we were in the car halfway down the road, (Gallmeyer) pulled out the 9 mm (gun) and told me I was gonna help him find Jesse. So I didn’t really have a choice, because I didn’t know at the time (the gun) didn’t work.”
After about 20 minutes of driving, Raymond said Gallmeyer spotted Patchin walking on Victory Avenue.
“(Gallmeyer) went into town and then he drove up and down the highway first to see if he could find him. Then he went down this other gravel road. We were actually on our way back when we seen him — well actually Chuck seen him — Jesse walkin’.”
Raymond said he opened the door and told Patchin to get in the car behind him on the passenger side.
“I kind of looked at him and I said sorry before he even got in the car,” Raymond said.
He explained, “I had a bad feeling Chuck was at least going to beat him bad, but Chuck having the gun, I didn’t have a whole lot to say what happened.”
Gallmeyer allegedly pulled the gun on Patchin, said Raymond, and told him to shut up and give his money to Raymond.
Raymond said he nervously played with a circular knife, accidentally cutting himself, while Patchin cried as Gallmeyer zig-zagged on gravel roads to an abandoned farm site on 300th Street.
When the car stopped, Raymond said Gallmeyer grabbed the throwing star-style knife from his hands.
“I don’t know whether he cut him with it or not,” Raymond said. “I found my knife on the ground.”
Raymond said Gallmeyer shoved Patchin to the ground.
“I think he kind of pushed him down, because I think he didn’t go too far from where they found him at,” he said. “I really didn’t see too much of a struggle at all.”
Raymond does not dispute Gallmeyer stabbed Patchin in the torso.
After Patchin was dead, Raymond claims he wiped blood off a knife at Gallmeyer’s direction. Gallmeyer then allegedly concealed the body.
“Chuck just threw leaves or whatever else was out there on top of him,” Raymond said.
Both men climbed back into the car and headed towards the mobile home.
“Chuck told me if I told anybody, he was going to kill my mom and my brothers, which I don’t see him having any problem with doing that,” Raymond said.
Gallmeyer also allegedly made Raymond call his brother and say he’d cut Patchin’s throat, Raymond stated.
Gallmeyer, who Raymond says he’d only met a couple of other times, insisted on accompanying him and the UNI student for the remainder of the day.
“He went to Cedar Falls with me all that day to make sure I didn’t say anything,” Raymond said.
About the time investigators began to focus their search for Patchin in Floyd County — around Oct. 19 — Raymond said Agent Cowman contacted him. He said he spoke with Cowman voluntarily.
“He basically asked me what happened or whatever,” Raymond said. “And I ... really wasn’t too honest with him in the beginning because of what Chuck had said.”
Raymond said he regrets not speaking out sooner with his story.
“I’ve been wanting to do it since the very start, but Dave Staudt kept telling me it wouldn’t help nothing. But now it’s getting to the point to where something’s got to give,” Raymond said.
He hopes sharing his story publicly will convince Dettmer to drop the charges against him. He also says he wants to do right for Patchin and his family.
“I trusted him a lot more than a lot of other people I knew at the time,” Raymond said, “which is kinda why this is why I’m doing this — because I think his family deserves to find out what really happened to him.”
In an initial interview with the Press, Raymond claimed he was not present at the time of the murder. He said Gallmeyer drove the car without his knowledge, and that he only knew of what took place when he found blood in the car.
However, in a follow-up interview, he offered a second version of events.
“Chuck kidnapped both of us. That’s the best way to put it,” Raymond said. “First he got me and then he went and got Jesse, and then he made me stay with him all day.”
Gallmeyer’s deposition
Gallmeyer reported in his deposition that he arrived at the mobile home between midnight and 1 a.m. After a few minutes of conversation, he said he went into a back room where Patchin was allegedly selling methamphetamine. Gallmeyer said he didn’t purchase any, but did use drugs at the home.
He said he played foosball and came into Charles City once to help Raymond and Patchin sell some remaining meth.
At about 6 a.m., Gallmeyer said he volunteered to go to Casey’s General Store to pick up cigarettes.
“I went out and (Raymond) followed me to go to town to Nashua to get some cigarettes, and he said we can take his girlfriend’s car, it didn’t matter ...,” Gallmeyer said.
“I drove. He then informed me on the way into town that he and Patchin had had a disagreement and Patchin had left, took off walking, and it was over the quality of the sh-t or whatever and monies that Raymond felt that he had coming. And he asked me if we could on the way back from getting cigarettes keep an eye out for him on the gravel.”
Gallmeyer said he and Raymond purchased the cigarettes, though Raymond stayed in the car.
“We came back out toward Dave’s on the gravel,” Gallmeyer said. “I was on Victory and I was just getting ready to turn onto 270th, which is Dave’s address, when Raymond pointed out (Patchin), that he seen him walking down Victory towards Charles City. He asked me if I would go get him.”
Gallmeyer said he backed the car up and Raymond told Patchin to come inside.
“(Raymond) turned around and stuck his finger in (Patchin’s) face and accused him of making him look like a fool in front of his uncle and wantin’ to know what he had did to the sh-t because everybody was sayin’ how (it) wasn’t very good, and umm, I can’t remember all what else, and how much money he had or somethin’ like that,” Gallmeyer stated.
He said he was driving west when Raymond asked him to drive toward Mason City.
“He wanted to drop this kid off somewhere where this kid wouldn’t know where he was and it would take him awhile to get anywhere,” Gallmeyer said. “That was what I thought he was intending. That was my assumption anyway.”
Gallmeyer said Raymond demanded Patchin give him his money and cell phone. Then Raymond asked Gallmeyer to find a place to pull off the road for he and Patchin to talk, Gallmeyer said.
He said he pulled onto the abandoned farm site where Patchin’s body was found months later. Gallmeyer said he positioned among some trees with the front of the car pointing toward the road.
“I didn’t want nobody seeing us,” he said.
Gallmeyer said Raymond climbed out of the car first and demanded Patchin’s coat and tennis shoes.
“(Raymond) took the coat, threw it in the car, pulled out this weird-lookin’ knife, this circular-lookin’ knife with three blades, took one of the blades right here in his neck (witness is demonstrating) and asked him how’s it feel like to be made a fool of or something like that,” Gallmeyer’s deposition stated.
Gallmeyer told investigators that Raymond continued to speak to Patchin as he stabbed him in the throat. Gallmeyer said he got out of the car and “lost my head,” stabbing Patchin multiple times with a double-edged, 5- to 6-inch long boot knife.
As Patchin laid lifeless on the ground, “I wanted to get him covered up and let’s get the hell out of here,” Gallmeyer said. “I jerked some weeds up and (Raymond) was jerkin’ some weeds up I think."
Gallmeyer said he looked a short time for his knife’s sheath before he and Raymond drove off along Olive Avenue, back to the mobile home.
“I wanted to forget immediately what I’d done. I couldn’t believe I’d done what I did, but I did it,” Gallmeyer said.
He said he told Raymond never to speak of what had happened and threw his knife out the car’s window along a gravel road.
When the two arrived back at the mobile home, Gallmeyer said he burned Patchin’s coat and shoes in a barrel out back.
He, Raymond and others “did some dope” Raymond had taken off Patchin, he said.
A while later, Gallmeyer said he drove Raymond and the UNI student to Waterloo in his truck after stopping in Charles City. Gallmeyer said he did not remember why he was in Charles City or why he would have given Raymond and the UNI student a ride when she would have been capable of driving her own car back.
In Waterloo, Gallmeyer said he and Raymond met with Patchin’s drug dealer and corroborated a story Raymond allegedly told that Patchin had walked off with the drugs and money.
Gallmeyer said he did not speak of the murder until one month later, when he mentioned it to his brother Mike Gallmeyer.
“ ... I can’t remember why it came up. Somethin’ about how crazy this Raymond kid was. I happened to bring sh-t up to him and we were by ourselves, he didn’t know how crazy he was that he had stuck this kid for nothing, for a couple hundred bucks. And then I shut up ‘cause Mike said I don’t want to know no more, I don’t want to know no more, and I says, yeah, you don’t want to know no more. It was eatin’ at me.”
Authorities considered Gallmeyer a suspect in Patchin’s murder in December 2005. Investigators then sought photographs of his hands and a DNA sample to compare to blood from multiple men found inside the car.
In his deposition, Gallmeyer said he did not recall any injuries that would have placed his blood in the car.
Jury to decide
Raymond said he hopes his attorneys, Jesse Marzen and Richard Tompkins, will be able to have the first-degree murder charges against him dismissed. In the likelihood the case will move to trial, a jury will decide in October whether it believes Raymond or Gallmeyer’s version of events.
Copyright 2006, by the Charles City Press
