Hiawatha man who shot at vehicle with ex-girlfriend, son inside faces up to 28 years

CEDAR RAPIDS — A Hiawatha man, who fired shots at his ex-girlfriend’s SUV that also had his 5-year-old son inside as they were leaving the Northwest Recreation Center in July 2022, was convicted of lesser charges last week and faces up to 28 years in prison.

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Isaiah Martin, 30, originally was charged with attempted murder. A Linn County jury found him guilty of intimidation with a dangerous weapon with intent and abandonment of a dependent person, both felonies; assault with intent to inflict serious injury, domestic abuse assault while using or displaying a dangerous weapon, child endangerment — substantial risk, and use of a dangerous weapon in the commission of a crime, all aggravated misdemeanors; and fifth-degree criminal mischief, a simple misdemeanor.

Martin was found not guilty of one charge — going armed with intent, a felony.

The jury deliberated over five hours Friday, following a three-day trial.

Assistant Linn County Attorney Jordan Schier, who prosecuted the case, said he wanted to thank the jury for their service and respects the verdict, but is disappointed in it.

“It is confusing for the jury to come back not guilty on the going armed with intent count, considering the defendant’s own attorney admitted that his client was guilty of it during his closing remarks,” Schier said. “Furthermore, in attempt to commit murder cases, we are never going to get a person to admit that their intention is to kill someone. So when there is a video of a person pointing a gun at another and shooting it twice, I do not know how that does not show an intent to kill. I would have liked to know how the jury thought his intention was something else.”

Rachel Richardson, Martin’s ex-girlfriend and mother of his son, testified last week that he threatened and attempted to intimidate her before and after her son’s basketball practice on July 18, 2022. She said Martin was already angry when he came to the practice because he had been calling her and she’d blocked his calls. He continued to call 40 to 50 times, she said.

Richardson had broken up with Martin in May 2022, but he kept trying to reconcile.

After the practice, Richardson said she had a “sick feeling” in her stomach when Martin was holding the boy and she told him to say goodbye to his father.

During her testimony, Schier played a surveillance video of what happened next in the parking lot.

Martin first walked out in front of Richardson’s car, as if to block her, and she let her mother, driving in another car, go before her. When she pulled out, Martin was sitting on a bench near the front of the building, but he started walking toward her SUV, and that’s when she saw he had a gun. She had to swerve around her mother’s car in an attempt to escape.

But Martin, staring directly at her, raised up his arm and fired the gun. She recalled hearing glass breaking and her son screaming. She said she feared for her life and her son’s.

She called 911 as she drove away.

The vehicle’s front and back windshield were hit by a bullet, and the back seat passenger side window, next to where her son was sitting, also was shot. The child didn’t have any injuries, but he was crying and shaking. Richardson had a small cut on her arm from the broken glass.

Her son, now 6, is in therapy as a result of the shooting. He wants to play basketball but doesn’t want to go back to the recreation center.

Richardson said she has had nightmares and is easily startled by loud noises.

Martin, during the trial, testified he wasn’t trying to kill her. He just wanted to scare her.

His sentencing is set for Aug. 8.

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