Charges were filed today (Tuesday) in Webster County District Court against a Fort Dodge Correctional Facility inmate accused of killing another prisoner. According to the Iowa Department of Public Safety, the inmate, 44-year-old Eric Todd Hall, faces one count of first-degree murder, a class A felony. Authorities say the victim, 59-year-old Thomas Andrew Daleske, was located deceased in his cell at approximately 5:15 p.m. on June 14. The Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI), Fort Dodge Correctional Facility and Webster County Medical Examiner conducted an investigation and determined Hall had been inside Daleske’s cell only a short time before the body was discovered. Hall later admitted during a police interview to killing Daleske. An autopsy conducted by the Iowa State Medical Examiner’s Office concluded the cause of death to be strangulation with blunt force injuries to the head and the manner of death as homicide. Daleske was 20 years into a 45-year sentence following his conviction in 2000 on multiple charges pertaining to sexual abuse and lascivious acts with a child in Warren County. Hall remains in custody at the Fort Dodge Correctional Facility and faces life in prison without the possibility of parole. Hall made news locally for more than 25 rural burglaries in Iowa, including several in the listening area, in late 2018. In mid-January of 2019, an off-duty Guthrie County deputy spotted the wanted man at Prairie Meadows in Altoona and detained him until local authorities could arrive.
