Davis

BURLINGTON – A man who murdered a jailer at the Marshall County Jail in 1978 has died.

The Iowa Department of Corrections announced Wednesday inmate Everett Roy Lyon, 71, died from natural causes at the Great River Medical Center where he had been sent for a suspected heart attack.

Lyon had been serving a life sentence since April 1979 for the first-degree murder of Marshall County Sheriff’s Office jailer Harry Euban Davis, 46.

On Sept. 9, 1978, Davis was on duty in the Marshall County Jail — then on South Second Avenue — when Lyon opened fire with a rifle and revolver shooting through the facility’s front windows.

Lyon was captured later in the day and charged. It is believed he mistook Davis for Marshall County Sheriff Derald Gonzalez, whom he held a grudge against.

Davis had served with the sheriff’s office as a part-time jailer for two weeks. He was survived by his wife and three children.

Davis’ name is listed with other fallen law enforcement colleagues on the Iowa Peace Officer Memorial in Des Moines.