At approximately 9:20 am on 9/22/25, deputies with the Black Hawk County Sheriff's Office arrested Jacob Leigh Hamilton (age 51) of Conrad, Iowa for Murder in the First Degree.
The charge stems from an incident that took place on 7/14/24 at approximately 3:40 am when officers were dispatched to 322 S. Washington Street, Apartment 13, in Hudson for a shooting. When officers arrived, they located a man with several gunshot wounds lying on the ground. The victim, later identified as Zachary Michael Drinovsky (age 35), was still alive but died from his injuries a short time later. Hamilton was present and admitted to officers he had shot Drinovsky after the two had been in an altercation. Hamilton claimed the shooting had been in self-defense.
The Black Hawk County Sheriff's Office investigated the incident with assistance from the Hudson Police Department and Waterloo Police Department. The case was then forwarded to the Iowa Attorney General's Office for review. After examining the case, the Attorney General's Office determined the totality of the evidence indicated "the defendant re-armed, re-engaged outside, and intentionally killed the victim willfully, deliberately, and with premeditation, without legal justification."
Jacob Hamilton was taken into custody without incident and is now being held in the Black Hawk County Jail on a bond of $1,000,000.
For more information contact:
Nathan Neff, Sheriff
Black Hawk County Sheriff’s Office
(319) 291-2587 ext. 5108
September 23, 2025 by Black Hawk County Sheriff's Office