A former University of Iowa music professor will spend 25 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to distributing meth and possessing child pornography.
Sixty-six-year-old John Muerillo was sentenced to 25 years on the drug charge. Court documents showed Muerillo obtained meth from California that was distributed by an accomplice in Iowa City. One of the customers who used the meth was found unconscious in an apartment in 2021 and then died.
Investigators found meth and a large collection of child pornography when they searched Muerillo’s residence. He will serve a 20-year sentence on the child porn possession charge at the same time as the drug sentence.
Muerillo was also ordered to pay more than $84,000 in court costs and restitution.