Iowa Supreme Court will review appeals ruling in Chris Bagley’s murder

CEDAR RAPIDS — The Iowa Supreme Court has granted further review of an appeals decision that overturned a Marion man’s second-degree murder conviction for killing Chris Bagley in 2018.

The Linn County Attorney’s Office asked the Iowa Attorney General’s Office to file the application after the Iowa Court of Appeals overturned the jury’s verdict for Drew Blahnik, 35, who changed his name to Johnny Blahnik Church after he was sentenced to 57 years for fatally stabbing Bagley, 31, of Walker, on Dec. 14, 2018.

“We are grateful to our partners in the Attorney General’s Office for taking on this important case and the Iowa Supreme Court for agreeing to hear the appeal. We look forward to this opportunity to make the case to uphold this conviction,” Linn County Attorney Nick Maybanks told The Gazette on Friday.

Stewart Bagley, Chris’ father, said he received notice of the oral arguments and was told they will likely be in September.

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“The family is happy the Supreme Court has reviewed the case and set oral arguments,” Stewart Bagley said. “We are very confident the court will overturn the lower courts and uphold the conviction.”

The Iowa Court of Appeals overturned the conviction Feb. 8, and Blahnik Church was given a new trial.

If the court upholds the appeals decision, First Assistant Linn County Attorney Monica Slaughter said in February that case will be retried a second time.

The appeals court ruled the trial judge abused his discretion in asking the jury to continue deliberations when jurors revealed, in a note, “open hostility toward a lone holdout juror.”

The court ruled 6th Judicial District Judge Christopher Bruns shouldn’t have given a supplemental instruction after receiving notes from the jury. Bruns had urged jurors, who deliberated for three days, to reach a unanimous verdict despite the conflict.

“Because the minority juror knew the court was aware of the split and the majority jurors’ hostility, that juror may well have viewed the supplemental instruction — in response to the third note — as directing the minority to join the majority,” the appeals court stated.

Bruns, in his ruling denying Blahnik Church’s motion for a new trial before sentencing, said after both formal and informal discussion with the prosecution and defense, he had provided a jury instruction previously approved by the appellate courts. He thought the instruction would be less likely to cause one juror to view it as an attempt to exert pressure for changing a position, Bruns wrote.

Blahnik Church remains in jail pending this decision because he is also serving time on federal drug charges and Linn County charges for beating up a witness while in jail.

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