Anthony Wayne Hartmann, 49, male, was killed on May 8, 2017, in Des Moines, Iowa. That Monday just after 1 p.m., police were called to a house at 7208 Southwest 17th Street, where Hartmann had gone to pick up some of his belongings. In the basement of the home, his 29-year-old stepdaughter, Sera Alexander, confronted him after retrieving a handgun from upstairs and shot him multiple times.
When officers arrived, she walked out and surrendered without incident, telling them who she was and leaving the firearm inside as instructed. Investigators later said evidence indicated Hartmann was not posing a threat at the moment he was shot, and several other people who had been inside the residence cooperated with police.
Court records and prior calls to the address formed part of the picture that followed. A no-contact order stemming from a late-2016 incident—when Hartmann had grabbed his wife by the hair and shoved her head against a car window—had been lifted just days before the shooting. Neighbors told reporters they had heard fights at the home in the past, while police said recent calls had been medical in nature. The initial affidavit described Hartmann arriving to collect his property; Alexander returned home, went upstairs for her handgun, and then went to the basement where the confrontation occurred.
Alexander was arrested the day of the killing and, in the immediate aftermath, was booked on a first-degree murder charge; authorities identified Hartmann as the city's 13th homicide victim of 2017 and noted multiple witnesses were present. As the case moved forward, prosecutors reduced the charge to second-degree murder ahead of trial. In March 2018, after a judge declined to allow an Iowa “stand your ground” defense, Alexander accepted a plea agreement to involuntary manslaughter and reckless use of a firearm causing serious injury. On April 27, 2018, a Polk County judge sentenced her to a total of 10 years in prison.
Obituary notices published soon after listed Hartmann as 49 years old and confirmed the May 8, 2017 date of death in Des Moines, aligning with the investigative timeline and the charges that followed. The legal resolution—Alexander's plea and sentencing—closed the criminal case and established that the shooting in the basement of the Southwest 17th Street home was the act of a single identified suspect who was arrested at the scene and later imprisoned.
