Raymond C. Metz, 63, died Saturday evening in a hospice room at the Anamosa State Penitentiary, according to the Iowa Department of Corrections.

Metz died of natural causes, the DOC said.

He was in prison for killing Don “Gypsy” Rundall, 47, of Fort Dodge, in September 1998.

Rundall’s body was found in an apartment at 131 N. Eighth St., on Sept. 16, 1998.

Metz was 44 at the time.

Rundall was 47.

According to a Messenger account of trial testimony, “Brent Hogan, one of Metz’s former co-workers at Farm Connection, said he used to pick Metz up for work each morning shortly before 8 a.m. at Metz’s apartment, located at 131 N. Eighth St. He testified he would usually tap on the window and hear a shout from Metz saying he would be outside in a minute.

“But on Sept. 16, 1998, Hogan said he heard a door shut, and there stood a bloodsoaked Metz before him, putting his swollen, bloody fists on his face.

“‘Mr. Metz came up to me and said, “Oh … I think I killed a man,”‘ Hogan testified Wednesday (Sept. 29, 1999). “He wanted me to go in the apartment to see if the man was gone.

“We went into the apartment and there was a fellow laying on the floor. He asked me if I thought the man was dead and I picked up the arm to check for a pulse. By then, rigor mortis had set in and I said, ‘I don’t think this man is here anymore,”‘ The Messenger reported.

“Hogan then told Metz to call the police, but Metz had no telephone in his apartment. Hogan then said he would call the police on his cellular telephone in his vehicle and told Metz to stay put. Instead, Hogan said, Metz went back into the apartment, took off a blood-soaked blue T-shirt he was wearing and put on a clean white T-shirt.

“Metz then walked outside of his apartment and told Hogan he needed a drink. ‘He threw the keys on my seat and said, “Do what you got to do,” and headed off,’ Hogan said.”

Court records from the case confirmed that Metz and Rundall were drinking the night before the murder.

Metz said at the time that he had passed out.

He went on trial in 1999. In his testimony, he took responsibility for killing Rundall, but didn’t actually admit to killing him.

When Metz testified during his trial on Sept. 30, 1999, Iowa Assistant Attorney General Scott Brown asked him, ”Do you admit to this jury that you killed him?”

”I can’t say that I didn’t do it,” Metz answered.

Brown repeated the question.

”I feel I was responsible, yes,” Metz replied.

Jurors convicted Metz of first-degree murder, but in 2001, the conviction was overturned by the Iowa Court of Appeals. The court ruled that prosecutors, who sought to contrast Metz’s story with his silence after his arrest, acted improperly.

Metz later pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in June 2002 and received the 50-year prison sentence.