116 3rd St SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
Bathroom covered in blood where Cedar Rapids woman found dead
Arthur Flowers on trial in April 2022 slaying of Emily Leonard
Apr. 20, 2023 7:21 pm, Updated: Apr. 21, 2023 11:02 am
CEDAR RAPIDS — Arthur Flowers called 911 on April 2, 2022, to report a woman who may have overdosed, but when officers arrived they found the woman lying on the floor of an upstairs bathroom that was covered in blood, a prosecutor said Thursday during her opening statement.
There was blood on top of Emily Leonard’s head and there was “blood spatter and blood smears” all over the bathroom, Assistant Linn County Attorney Heidi Weiland said.
The bathroom was disorganized and messy. A mirror was on the floor, along with blankets and others items that didn’t belong in the bathroom such as a wooden board with a red substance on it.
Weiland said Leonard had defensive wounds on her arms and hands.
Flowers, 62, charged with first-degree murder, is on trial this week in Linn County District Court, accused of killing Leonard, 22, at his house. A jury was selected late Wednesday. The trial is expected to go into next week.
Flowers told the 911 dispatcher and responding police officers that “John is going to kill me.” Later, Weiland said, investigators found out John Leonard was Emily’s father and Flowers’ best friend.
Flowers also told officers he was sleeping in the tub because he “loves water” when Leonard was injured. He said Leonard had gotten high and that he didn’t know what happened to her.
Crime scene investigators found a metal rod they believed was the murder weapon and that had been used to strike Leonard in the head. At one point, while out on the porch with officers, Flowers flipped over a rug in an attempt to cover up the rod, Weiland said.
Flowers also attempted to grab a tote bag with money — several hundreds — which was found in the house. The officers told him the money would stay with them because it was found at a crime scene.
He asked more than once if John, Emily’s father, was still in jail.
Defense statement
Adrian Haughton, Flowers’ lawyer and an assistant state public defender, said in his opening statement that Flowers didn’t kill Leonard.
Leonard, he said, came to his home in southeast Cedar Rapids April 1, and he allowed her to stay with him at the house, where he was in the middle of home repairs.
The next day, April 2, he took a nap and then found Leonard in the bathroom, Haughton said. He didn’t know if she was dead or alive. When he called 911, he was “confused and scared.“
Flowers told police he was concerned about Leonard and cooperated with officers. He attempted to tell them about dangerous people in his life but they wouldn’t listen.
“They zeroed in on Arthur Flowers,” Haughton said.
Haughton told the jury that they would learn there is no “actual” evidence that Flowers killed Leonard because he didn’t.
Testimony
Flowers’ phone call to 911 was played for the jurors, and Melissa Bates, a city of Cedar Rapids 911 dispatcher, said Flowers reported a woman had overdosed on heroin and then mentioned a gun.
Bates said the two got disconnected and when she tried to call back, the call went to voicemail. She said Flowers sounded confused and his statements were “discombobulated.”
Leonard was already dead when Bethany Bruns, a paramedic with Area Ambulance Service, arrived at Flowers’ house. The bathroom was in “disarray” and “a lot of blood” was everywhere.
Bruns said she had “never seen anything like it.”
There wasn’t a space to set down anything in the bathroom because of the mess and blood, she said.
Leonard was lying on her back with her pants lowered to her thighs, covered in “dried” blood, Bruns said.
Leonard didn’t have injuries to the front of her body, but she had blood in her hair. Bruns said she didn’t see evidence of an overdose, saying no needles were in or near Leonard’s body.
Ethan Lightner, a Cedar Rapids police officer, testified Flowers seemed frantic when officers arrived.
Lightner said blood was all over the bathroom, on the bathtub and on a blanket or sheet that was over Leonard’s body. He said a large wooden board was leaning against the wall next to the tub and had what appeared to be blood on one end.
Scott Stocksleger, a criminalist with the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation Crime Lab, testified several items with blood on them matched DNA from Flowers and Leonard,
Flowers’ hands were tested and found to have mixture of blood from him and Leonard, he said.
The end of a metal rod and handle tested positive for blood, with DNA that matched Leonard, Stocksleger said. Plastic sheeting found in the bathroom also had Leonard’s blood on it and so did a T-shirt found next to the bathtub.
A sexual assault kit collected from Leonard identified DNA from her and Flowers, Stocksleger testified.
Blood found in the bathtub water matched DNA from Flowers and Leonard, he said.
Comments: (319) 398-8318; trish.mehaffey@thegazette.com
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