Cedar Rapids man attempts suicide in courthouse

CEDAR RAPIDS – A 32-year-old man, convicted Tuesday by a jury of kidnapping a woman with intent to sexually assault her, attempted to commit suicide by jumping over the railing on the top floor of the Linn County Courthouse.

After the verdict was read, Jabari Walker, of Cedar Rapids, was led him out of the courtroom by deputies. Still handcuffed, he went for the railing on the fourth floor and was almost all the way over, before deputies pulled him back to safety.

“We've never had anything like this before happen in all my years,” said Linn County Sheriff's Col. John Stuelke on Wednesday.

The leg chains had been removed from Walker for the verdict, which is a common procedure, Stuelke said.

“I saw the deputies struggling to pull him back,” said Linn County Attorney Jerry Vander Sanden. “He didn't have any reaction (to the verdict) until this happened. I've never heard of anybody flinging themselves over. It surely would have been death for him. It was distressing for everyone who saw it.”

Vander Sanden said the jurors didn't witness the incident. They had already left the fourth floor and were back in the deliberation room when this occurred around 4:30 p.m. Tuesday. The victim wasn't in the courthouse for the verdict and none of Walker's family or friends saw the attempted suicide, he said.

Stuelke said Walker wasn't injured but he remains on suicide watch Wednesday at the jail.

Walker, charged with first-degree kidnapping, which carries a life sentence, was convicted on a lesser offense of third-degree kidnapping and faces a 10 year sentence. Walker drove a 42-year-old woman against her will to an abandoned farmhouse on Alburnett Road May 6, and forced her to perform oral sex and other sexual acts.

During the trial, the victim and Walker both testified but their accounts of the evening were different.

The woman, of Iowa City, said she met Walker earlier that evening at Brother's Bar and Grill in Iowa City and she left voluntarily with him to have breakfast, according to court testimony. She followed him to Coralville where he dropped off his friends at a motel and then she got into his car. She knew something was wrong when he went the wrong way and headed to the interstate.

The woman then said they were headed towards Cedar Rapids and he refused to take her back to Iowa City, locked the car doors and made her perform oral sex while he was driving. Walker drove 38 miles to Alburnett Road and parked behind an abandoned farmhouse, where he continued to abuse her, she said.

Walker testified the woman voluntarily performed oral sex on him and initially agreed to go home with him to Cedar Rapids. She then changed her mind and wanted to go back to Iowa City but she needed to go to the bathroom, so he tried to find a place for her and stopped behind the farmhouse.

Walker could end up doing more prison time, depending on whether a judge decides to classify him as a sexual predator. If that enhancement is applied, Walker could be sentenced to another 15 years for a total of 25 years in prison. He would have to serve 22 years before being eligible for parole.

Vander Sanden said Walker has a prior sexual abuse conviction from 2006 in Hamilton, Ohio. He was convicted for sexual imposition, a misdemeanor charge in Ohio. Vander Sanden argued Wednesday in court that the enhancement should apply because of Tuesday's conviction and the one in Ohio.