Cedar Rapids man found with dead man in car now charged with murder

A Cedar Rapids man found Tuesday on the side of Interstate 80 in Poweshiek County with a dead man in his car now has been charged with first-degree murder.

Jihad Abdul Malik Gasaway, 23, was arrested Tuesday and charged with abuse of a corpse after two Iowa State Patrol troopers saw him pulled over on the side of the road and, when they stopped to talk with him, found a dead man in his passenger seat, according to criminal complaints.

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The dead man has been identified as Kemp Xavier Sherrod Harriel, 26, who records show was from Cedar Rapids. An autopsy revealed he died of two gunshot wounds to the chest, according to the Iowa Department of Public Safety.

According to a department news release, the troopers responded at 8:10 a.m. to a report of a stranded vehicle on westbound I-80 near mile marker 188, between Grinnell and Malcolm.

Troopers said they found Gasaway attempting to restart his stalled silver 2010 Chevrolet Malibu. After initially talking with Gasaway, the troopers detained him and retrieved a gun from him. The troopers searched the car and found Harriel slumped over the passenger seat and on the floor, concealed under items of clothing.

Harriel was pronounced dead the scene.

During an interview with authorities, Gasaway said he and Harriel left Cedar Rapids for Des Moines early that morning. No one else was with them. Gasaway told officers he covered Harriel with clothing because he thought he was cold and was waiting for the police, according to a criminal complaint.

While sitting in the troopers’ car, Gasaway was heard on a recording saying, “Please be OK.” Later, during his police interview, he said he didn’t know Harriel “was gone until I watched the police eyes and read his lips. That’s when I started crying in the car. He was alive and talking to me.”

When asked what happened to Harriel, Gasaway told officers that “we got into it.” He also told officers Harriel had been alive earlier that morning, when the car had been in a ditch elsewhere along I-80.

Investigators found a 9 mm shell casing on the floor in the car and two fired bullets inside the front passenger door. The casing matched the gun that had been taken from Gasaway, a complaint said.

“Based on the defendant and victim being alone in the car, the defendant’s statement that the victim was alive a short time before they were found together at mile marker 188, the defendant’s statement that he and the victim ‘got into it,’ the defendant in possession of a handgun, the autopsy report, the bullets and shell casing found in the car, Jihad Abdul Malik Gasaway is charged with the first-degree murder of Kemp Xavier Sherrod Harriel,” the criminal complaint reads.

Gasaway is being held in the Poweshiek County Jail on a $50,000 cash-only bail on the abuse of a corpse charge. He has not yet had his first appearance on the murder charge to determine what the bail on that charge will be.

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