Articles Tagged: Murder

A Columbus Junction man has been charged with first-degree murder in the death of a man who was shot before his body was dragged down a gravel road behind a van.

Lawyers for the family of an Iowa woman killed by her estranged husband say that had it not been for Bellevue police officers’ “deliberate refusal to enforce the law,” the woman would still be alive.

Johnny Blahnik Church, formerly known as Drew Blahnik, who was convicted for killing Chris Bagley in 2018, told a grand jury in 2019 that Andrew Shaw wasn’t involved in Bagley’s killing in any way.

Andrew Shaw, during a police interview, denied hiring two men to kill Chris Bagley in 2018. He told investigators he wanted someone to beat Bagley up but never asked Drew Wagner or Johnny Blahnik Church to do it.

Drew Wagner, testifying in the Andrew Shaw murder trial, said he didn’t give police investigators all the details in the fatal stabbing of Chris Bagley in 2018 because he was scared. Testimony continued Wednesday in Cedar Rapids.

A Shellsburg man, set to start trial today in Johnson County for helping his lover kill her husband in June of 2021, unexpectedly pleaded guilty and faces life in prison without the possibility of parole.

ID show “911 Did The Killer Call?” focuses Tuesday on the Eastern Iowa murder of a Marengo man who was fatally assaulted by his girlfriend, her son and his friend in July 2009.

Drew Wagner testified Monday he didn’t know Johnny Blahnik Church was serious about killing Chris Bagley in 2018, but he admitted he used a wrestling hold on Bagley while Blahnik Church fatally stabbed him. Andrew Shaw, Wagner said, then paid Blahnik Church cash, drugs and an SUV for the killing.

A Cedar Rapids man, already convicted in the fatal stabbing of Chris Bagley in 2018, testified in court Friday that Bagley and Andrew Shaw were friends until Bagley started robbing, extorting him. Shaw is on trial for first-degree murder and other charges related to Bagley’s murder.

“The why” as to fatal stabbing of Chris Bagley on Dec. 14, 2018 is one man, Andrew Shaw, a Linn County prosecutor said Thursday. Bagley had become a “liability” and Shaw is accused of paying two men to carry out his fatal stabbing.

A judge will allow part of the confession of a Marion man accused of bludgeoning 4 people with a metal bar in June of 2024. His statements made to law enforcement regarding motive and details won’t be allowed at trial because he wasn’t read Miranda rights at that time.

An investigation revealed a history of domestic abuse by an Iowa City man charged earlier this year with fatally assaulting the mother of his toddler.

The trial for Logan Kimpton, accused of helping his roommate and another man kidnap, torture and strangle a Marion woman in 2024, has been reset.

A Linn County jury deliberated three hours before finding a Traer woman guilty of first-degree murder. The prosecution said she planned with her “lover“ — a much younger Shellsburg man — to kill her husband and start a new life with his $500,000 life insurance policy. She was the sole beneficiary.

Matthew Schleier will claim insanity at trial, and the prosecution will have an independent psychological evaluation performed in August and needs more time to prepare.