Iowa Supreme Court overturns appeal, upholding conviction of man who killed Chris Bagely

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) – The Iowa Supreme Court upheld the murder conviction of the man who killed Chris Bagely in Cedar Rapids, reversing an Appeals Court ruling that overturned that conviction.

Johnny Blahnik Church (formerly known as Drew Blahnik) was sentenced in December 2021 to 57 years in prison for stabbing Chris Bagley to death in 2018.

In February, the Iowa Court of Appeals overturned that conviction based on the judge issuing an “Allen Charge” to jurors when the jury said a lone holdout was preventing a verdict. An Allen Charge is essentially the judge urging the jurors to reach a verdict. The Court of Appeals found that the instruction from the judge put undue pressure on the lone holdout and threw out Church’s murder conviction.

The Iowa Supreme Court on Friday threw out the Court of Appeals ruling and upheld the conviction against Church. It said the Allen Charge did not coerce a juror to change their opinion.

“In determining the propriety of a verdict-urging instruction, however, we are not so concerned with the inherent psychological pressure jurors place on each other during deliberations,” the ruling wrote. “Instead, we are more concerned with whether “the instruction improperly coerced or helped coerce a verdict.”

The Iowa Supreme Court ruling also found the Court of Appeals ruling mischaracterized the jurors as hostile towards the lone holdout, which was part of its reason for overturning the verdict. Instead, the Iowa Supreme Court pointed out the other jurors described the hold out juror as “”failing to follow,” “refusing to follow,” and “deliberately not following” the district court’s instructions.”

Church had remained in prison during the appeal, as he was also sentenced 10 years in prison after he and another inmate beat up another inmate to stop him from testifying in a separate drug-related case.

The ruling comes days after a drug dealer was charged with ordering Church to murder Bagley. Andrew Shaw is charged with First Degree Murder, Solicitation to Commit Murder and Conspiracy to Commit Forcible Felony for his involvement in Bagley’s death. Prosecutors say Shaw ordered a hit on Bagley because Bagley had stolen from Shaw.

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