Storm Lake man awaiting trial for kidnapping wife, convicted in jail assault

A mother called Iowa City police Dec. 12, 2022, after receiving a concerning text message from her daughter, saying she was not text back because the daughter had been taken against her will by her husband, Carldale Hunter, who had a gun.

The mother told police her daughter, Shelitha Hunter, and her husband had several children and recently had been “fighting.”

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The daughter, in her text, asked her mother not to call the police because Carldale Hunter said he would kill her. She asked her mother to keep her son safe and she would call police when she got away. The husband told her he was going to “kill y’all,” the text stated, according to a search warrant affidavit.

The mother believed Carldale Hunter had taken her daughter from Cedar Rapids and was headed to Chicago, according to the affidavit. She told police she thought he missed a bus and may be around the Burlington Trailways bus stop in Iowa City with Shelitha and three of their children.

Iowa City police found the couple and three children in the Burlington Trailways lobby at 170 E. Court St. in Iowa City.

As soon as police arrived, Carldale Hunter pulled out a gun and grabbed his wife, holding her in front of him like a shield and pressing the gun to the back of her head, according to a criminal complaint. He told officers he would kill her if they didn’t back off, and then fled with her into the Court Street Parking Ramp, the complaint stated.

During his escape, another woman was stopped on the second floor of the parking ramp in her Hyundai Santa Fe when she encountered Hunter and his wife running up the ramp toward her vehicle, according to the complaint. The driver attempted to lock her door, but Carldale Hunter was able to open it before it locked and told her to get out. She refused twice, even after he told her he was armed.

Carldale Hunter then pointed a small handgun at the driver’s face and told her again to get out, the complaint stated. She finally was able to get her car door shut and locked, and against refused.

An officer could hear him yelling and saw him attempting to force the driver out of her vehicle, according to the complaint.

Police continued to follow Carldale Hunter and his wife through multiple levels of the parking garage until officers were able to corner him. Officers attempted to negotiate while he was holding his wife and threatened to kill her and himself. Eventually, he released his wife and shot and injured himself.

Carldale Hunter was taken to a hospital and then released to police custody.

His three children — an infant, a 7-year-old and an 8-year-old — were present in the lobby of the bus stop during the incident, police said.

Carldale Hunter, 34, of Storm Lake, was charged with second-degree kidnapping, first-degree robbery, assault with a dangerous weapon. going armed with intent, possession of a firearm by a felon, domestic abuse assault and child endangerment.

What’s happened since

Prosecutors amended the trial information in June and charged Hunter as a “habitual offender” for the going armed with intent and possession of a firearm by a felon charges. If Hunter is convicted of these two five-year sentences, he must serve the minimum of three years on each before being eligible for parole because he has previous felony convictions in Pocahontas County in 2021 and Cook County, Ill., in 2017.

Hunter, while in the Johnson County Jail, was charged with participating in a riot, a Class D felony, on July 6. He entered another cell with six other inmates and assaulted Ewaun Gardner. During the assault, Hunter “physically prevented” the victim from leaving the cell, according to a criminal complaint.

Hunter pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of unlawful assembly, an aggravated misdemeanor, Tuesday in Johnson County. Sixth Judicial Associate District Judge Jason Burns sentenced him 90 days in jail, which Hunter received with credit for time already served.

One of the others charged in the riot case also pleaded guilty to unlawful assembly and the rest are pending trials.

Hunter remains in the Johnson County Jail on a $200,000 bail. His trial is set for Oct. 24.

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