North Liberty man accused of serial sexual assaults

A North Liberty man who was charged in May in Black Hawk County with multiple counts of sexual assault and burglary is now facing similar charges in Johnson County after police say he broke into women’s residences in Cedar Falls, Waterloo and Iowa City, threatened them and sexually assaulted them, according to authorities.

Charges against him also are expected in Linn County after an attempted sexual assault in May in Center Point.

Asante Ajee Walker-Garcia Adams, 25, was arrested May 19 in Black Hawk County on two counts of second-degree sexual assault and two counts of first-degree burglary. A warrant for his arrest in Johnson County was issued June 26, and he appeared virtually in Johnson County court Thursday on two counts of second-degree sexual abuse, one count of first-degree burglary and one count of second-degree robbery.

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He was being held in the Black Hawk County Jail on bail totaling $500,000 from Black Hawk County and $400,000 from Johnson County.

Iowa City assault

The Iowa City Police Department responded to a sexual assault report the evening of Sept. 6, 2022, in the 600 block of S. Lucas Street. The victim said she was in bed when a man burst in, punched her in the face and pulled a sheet over her head, a criminal complaint shows.

The man told her not to move or he would kill her, and demanded she give him her money and phone. He sexually assaulted her and when she resisted, he threatened her, saying, “Don’t make me get my knife again. Don’t make me take it out,” the complaint states. After the assault, the man took items from the residence and fled out the back.

Iowa City police released doorbell surveillance video after the assault, asking the public to help identify the man shown. A later warrant search of Walker-Garcia Adams’ phone showed his wife had confronted him after a University of Iowa Hawk Alert went out, indicating she knew he was in the area at the time. She later texted him a KCRG-TV article, with the doorbell video attached, and asked, "so that's a random guy with dreads, similar eyes, similar height? Happened same time u were there?" the complaint states.

Waterloo assault

Waterloo police responded to a sexual assault report about 6 a.m. March 10. Officers were dispatched to the victim’s home, where she told them she woke up to a man sitting on her bed, holding a knife to her 5-year-old son’s throat, a criminal complaint shows.

The man said he would cut the child if she yelled for help and then put a pillowcase over her head. Still holding the knife, he took her to the bathroom and then the couch in the living room, where he sexually assaulted her, the complaint states.

Waterloo police were able to obtain DNA from the knife used in the assault, which they sent to the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, according to a search warrant request filed by the Cedar Falls Police department.

Cedar Falls assault

Another assault was reported early April 10 in an apartment on College Street in Cedar Falls. Police responded to MercyOne Waterloo Medical Center where the victim had gone to have a sexual assault kit performed.

According to the warrant request, the woman told police she was asleep when she woke up to something tight wrapped around her neck and something covering her face. She said there was a man in her room who threatened her with a knife and sexually assaulted her. She identified the attacker as a Black man with dreadlocks.

After the assault, she drove to her parents’ house in Waterloo and her father took her to the hospital. Police searched her apartment and determined the man entered through a window. The investigation turned up video from surveillance cameras showing a Black man with dreadlocks checking windows on different residences for several hours before disappearing off-camera in the direction of the woman’s apartment. After the time of the assault, he is seen again leaving the area, according to the warrant request.

Department collaboration and arrest

The three police departments had communicated about the similar assaults throughout the course of their investigations. The DCI released a report to the departments on April 28 indicating there was a possible association between DNA collected from the Cedar Falls incident and DNA collected from the Waterloo incident, the warrant request states.

On May 3, Cedar Falls investigators were told by Linn County sheriff’s deputies that there had been an attempted sexual assault in Center Point, and the victim had described the attacker as a Black man with dreadlocks. Linn County deputies obtained a fingerprint from that crime scene, which came back as matching Walker-Garcia Adams. Investigators reviewed mug shots of him from previous arrests and determined he matched the man seen in video footage in Cedar Falls and Iowa City.

According to Linn County Attorney Nick Maybanks, Walker-Garcia Adams also will be charged in Linn County with third-degree kidnapping, second-degree robbery, assault with intent to commit sexual abuse and false imprisonment. Additional information and criminal complaints about the Linn County charges are not yet available, since Walker-Garcia Adams has not yet had his first appearance in court on those charges.

The warrant request was filed the same day Walker-Garcia Adams was arrested, and his DNA was found to match DNA obtained from sexual assault kits completed by all three victims, according to criminal complaints.

Comments: (319) 398-8328; emily.andersen@thegazette.com