Articles Tagged: Murder

Linn County prosecutor says investigation leading to three arrests in the kidnapping and fatal assault of 20-year-old Marion woman is the ‘swiftest’ during his tenure. He attributes it to the dedication and work ethic of the multiple law enforcement agencies investigating the slaying.

Family and friends gathered in Marion Thursday night for a candlelight vigil to commemorate the life of Melody Hoffman, a 20-year-old Marion woman who police say was kidnapped and murdered over the weekend.

After more than two years of investigation, a Traer woman was charged with first-degree murder in the fatal shooting of her husband in their home. Her husband died from two gunshot wounds to his face.

Dianne Martin, daughter of finance manager, Fred Coste, 47, who was fatally stabbed in 1959, has gone through many emotions over the last 64 years, waiting for his killer to be caught. She is hoping Cedar Rapids police Investigator Matt Denlinger can get her the answers she needs to have peace.

A pregnant woman admitted to stabbing the father of her two children, but said they were in a physical fight at the time. She intially told police she heard him calling for help and found him outside with a stab wound.

A Cedar Rapids woman was arrested Friday on a charges of second-degree murder and assault while displaying a dangerous weapon (domestic abuse).

A man who police believe committed two homicides in Moline, Illinois, last week was found dead later that same day by a self-inflicted gunshot wound in Coralville.

Kazius Childress, before his trial resumed Monday, decided plea to second-degree murder in the 2022 fatal shooting of Cordal Lewis. He admitted to shooting multiple times at Lewis, as Lewis was unarmed and running away from him. He faces up to 50 years and must serve a mandatory 35 years before being eligible for parole.

A police investigator said Kazius Childress identified another man as the one who shot Cordal Lewis in January 2022. The man is the person Childress is accused of shooting in a separate case.

Witness who saw Kazius Childress fatally shoot Cordal Lewis in 2022 admitted that he lied several times to police because he didn’t want to be involved, fearing for himself and family.

Kazius Childress fired 11 times as 19-year-old Cordal Lewis tried to run away from him, a a prosecutor said during her opening Wednesday. Childress is on trial this week for first-degree murder and going armed with intent. Childress and others robbed Lewis and then Childress shot him in “cold blood.”

A judge delayed a trial pending since April 2021 because prosecutors turned over what could be new evidence to defense just days before trial was to begin this week in Johnson County District Court. Prosecutors believed it had already been shared with defense but they received some of the information from police in a different format.

Trial for Andrew Shaw, accused of hiring two men to kill Chris Bagley in 2018, has been bumped to Jan. 23. Shaw had demanded his speedy right to trial.

Two Missouri residents are charged with first-degree murder in the fatal shooting of Shawn William Michael Kiger, 31, of Cedar Rapids, whose body was found in rural southeast Missouri this week. Kiger’s hands were bound behind his back and a sock was stuffed in his mouth.

A John Doe homicide victim killed in California in 1974 was identified last month through genetic geneaology as being a former Cedar Rapids man. Authorities believe he may be a possible victim of a notarious California serial killer who is on death row.