Man faces murder charge after Cedar Rapids drug transaction

Cedar Rapids — A Cedar Rapids man shot another man five times — killing him — during a marijuana transaction Thursday night in southwest Cedar Rapids, court records show.

Darnell Rashaun Bays, 28, is charged with first-degree murder, intimidation with a dangerous weapon, going armed with intent and being felon in possession of a firearm.

According to a criminal complaint, Bays offered his cousin $30 to drive him to Uptown Liquor, at 2000 Wiley Blvd. SW, where Bays said he was going to meet Michael Hodges Jr. and buy marijuana from him. When they arrived, Bays got out of his cousins’ sport utility vehicle and got into the passenger seat of Hodges’ Volkswagen Jetta.

He shot Hodges in the hip, torso, neck and twice in the arm, killing him, according to the complaint.

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Bays then got back in his cousin’s SUV and said he did not get the money — even though he originally had said he was purchasing marijuana and not selling it. A few hours later, the cousin went to the Cedar Rapids Police Department and said he had been the driver of the SUV at the scene and that his cousin, Bays, was the shooter, the complaint said.

Police were called to crime scene about 5:09 p.m. Thursday for a report of a man who appeared to be dead inside a car. Hodges’ injuries indicated the shots had been fired from the passenger side of the car, the complaint states.

Surveillance video from a nearby apartment complex and a dental office matched with what Bays’ cousin told police. The video showed a white SUV pulling up behind Hodges’ car, and someone getting out of the passenger seat of the SUV and into the passenger seat of the Jetta. Five gunshots can be heard on the video. Then the person got out of the Jetta and returned to the SUV, which drove away, according to the complaint.

Bays turned himself in to the Cedar Rapids Police Department early Friday and admitting to being inside Hodges’ car and to shooting him, police said. He said he had gone to deliver marijuana to Hodges — the opposite of what he told his cousin.

An ounce of marijuana was found in Hodges’ car, and a gun was found on Hodges’ side of the vehicle. But there wasn’t any evidence that Hodges had fired at Bays, according to the complaint.

Bays, at his first appearance in court on the murder charge Friday, was ordered held on a $1 million cash-only bail. He also is currently facing a charge from January for assault with intent to commit sexual abuse. He has a jury trial scheduled in that case is Dec. 11.

Hodges, 29, of Cedar Rapids, shot a man in self-defense in 2018 outside Pub 217 at 217 Third St. SE in downtown Cedar Rapids. He originally was charged with attempted murder, but a prosecutor later dropped the charge saying he acted in self-defense.

The man injured in the shooting, who also shot at Hodges, was the aggressor, according to the prosecutor, Assistant Linn County Attorney Monica Slaughter.

Hodges later was charged federally with being a drug user in possession of a firearm and sentenced to three years in prison. He was released earlier this year and had been on supervised release.

Trish Mehaffey of The Gazette contributed to this report.

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