(Des Moines, IA) -- The Iowa Court of Appeals has reversed the second-degree murder conviction of Johnny Blahnik Church, formerly Drew Blahnik. The court issued an opinion today (Wednesday), which said the court abused its discretion in giving "a verdict-urging instruction" on the fourth day of jury deliberations.
In July 2021, Church was convicted of stabbing and killing Chris Bagley in late 2018. Bagley went missing in December. His body was found buried at a home in southeast Cedar Rapids in early 2019.
Prosecutors argued Church stabbed Bagley to retaliate after the robbery of a large-scale marijuana trafficker.
Church claimed self-defense, claiming Bagley had a gun. The appeals court ruling states says because the jury's notes in court revealed open hostility to one lone holdout juror, the court should never had given them a verdict-urging instruction.