Man will get new murder trial in relation to 2018 Cedar Rapids killing

A man convicted of second-degree murder in 2018 will now get a new trial after a recent decision from the Iowa Court of Appeals.

A jury convicted Johnny Blahnik Church, formerly known as Drew Blahnik, of second-degree murder in the December 2018 stabbing death of 31-year-old Chris Bagley. Prosecutors alleged in the trial near the end of 2021 that Church stabbed Bagley to death in retaliation for a theft from a drug dealer. Church was also found guilty of obstructing prosecution and defacing a corpse. He was sentenced to 57 years in prison.

During jury deliberations, the jury wrote multiple times to the court alleging that one juror refused "to follow certain rules set forth by" the court. The court contemplated issuing an Allen charge, based on the 1896 Supreme Court case Allen v. United States, which is a "verdict-urging or 'dynamite' instruction" offered by the court to a deadlocked jury.

In Church's case, the court eventually offered such an instruction despite objections from the defense. Three hours later, the jury convicted Church of the lesser charge of second-degree murder from his original charge of first-degree murder.

Following the jury's decision, Church's legal team alleged that the court "abused its discretion" in offering the Allen charge. The court originally denied Church's request for a new trial, prompting Church to appeal his case to the Iowa Court of Appeals.

In a judgement issued on Feb. 8, Iowa Court of Appeals judge P.J. Tabor affirmed Church's argument, reversing the judgement in his case and calling for a retrial. Tabor argued that the court's decision to issue the Allen charge in the case was "an abuse of discretion" because "the jury's notes to the court revealed open hostility toward a lone holdout juror." He also wrote that the Allen charge had a "coercive effect" on the jury in Church's case and that the jury did not spend an adequate amount of time deliberating the case after the instruction was issued compared to before.

"Church's jury deliberated nearly thirteen hours across four days before declaring its deadlock. After the Allen charge, it returned a verdict in roughly three hours. That time was short in comparison to the duration, and expressed vehemence, of the jury’s disagreement," Tabor wrote in the judgement.

Church was also sentenced last year to 10 years on unrelated assault and witness tampering charges for beating up another prisoner at the Linn County Jail.

Francesca Block is a breaking news reporter at the Des Moines Register. Reach her at FBlock@registermedia.com or on Twitter at @francescablock3.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Verdict overturned in 2018 stabbing death of Cedar Rapids man