New trial for man in 2018 fatal stabbing negated by Iowa Supreme Court
A Marion man convicted in a fatal 2018 stabbing won't get a second trial after all, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled Friday.
Johnny Blahnik Church, then known as Drew Blahnik, was charged with killing 31-year-old Christopher Bagley of Walker and helping to conceal his body. At trial in 2021, Church argued his actions were justified self-defense, but he was convicted of second-degree murder and other charges.
Church appealed his conviction, and the Iowa Court of Appeals in February ordered he be given a new trial, finding the judge had improperly pressured a holdout juror to reach a verdict. The state appealed to the Iowa Supreme Court, and on Friday, a unanimous court upheld Church's conviction, reversing the lower court's decision.
Leon Spies, Church's attorney, said the decision is a blow to his client and his family.
"A unanimous panel of the Court of Appeals found that Mr. Church had been denied a fair trial," Spies said in an email, adding, "Of course, I respect the ruling of the Supreme Court. But it’s extremely difficult to explain to Mr. Church and his family how the earlier grant of a new trial is now vacated by the Court’s unanimous opinion to the contrary."
What happened to Christopher Bagley?
Prosecutors contended in Church's trial that he had stabbed Bagley 13 times in retaliation for a theft from a drug dealer he was working for. Church and a codefendant then buried Bagley's body behind Wagner's Cedar Rapids home, they said. His remains were discovered after a monthslong search.
Previously: 'You took our lives, too': Iowa parents remember flawed but family-oriented son who was stabbed to death
Church claimed he'd acted in self-defense after Bagley brandished a gun. The judge wrote after the verdict that even if Church had had some initial justification, "(Church) stabbed Bagley so many times and with such ferocity that the force used was not reasonable."
Did judge's instruction taint jury deliberation?
The jurors who heard Church's case deliberated for several days, then informed the judge they were deadlocked 11 to 1 in favor of finding him guilty. Over several notes, the other jurors claimed the sole holdout was "refusing to follow" jury instructions related to the justification defense, and had told the other jurors, "I don't care, I'm not changing my opinion."
Over the defense's objection, the judge gave jurors an additional written instruction urging them to reach a verdict, saying they "should lay aside all mere pride of opinion and should bear in mind that the jury room is no place for espousing and maintaining, in a spirit of controversy, either side of a cause." After 3 1/2 additional hours, the jury finally returned its guilty verdict.
Court of Appeals reversed, jury verdict upheld
The three-judge panel that first heard Church's appeal ruled the judge's instruction had been improper, finding it reinforced the apparent "open hostility" of other jurors toward the sole holdout.
But in Friday's ruling, Justice Christopher McDonald, writing for the Supreme Court, said Church's case closely tracked with past trials where the court has upheld jury-urging instructions, and that the language of the instruction did not explicitly target the holdout juror, require that the jury reach a verdict, or otherwise inappropriately pressure the jurors to change their minds.
The decision means Church will continue to serve his 57-year sentence, as well as a separate 10-year sentence for brutally assaulting a witness against another drug trafficker in the Linn County jail. Wagner, the other defendant in Bagley's murder, pleaded guilty before trial and was sentenced to 47 years.
William Morris covers courts for the Des Moines Register. He can be contacted at wrmorris2@registermedia.com, 715-573-8166 or on Twitter at @DMRMorris.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Christopher Bagley stabbing verdict upheld by Iowa Supreme Court
