Iowa Court of Appeals affirms murder conviction on Floyd County death

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

A Waterloo man who was convicted of murdering a Grundy Center man in Floyd County and who was sentenced to spend the rest of his life in prison, has had his conviction affirmed by the Iowa Court of Appeals.

Armando Adame III, now age 30, was convicted in February 2020 by a Floyd County jury of murdering Michael Bruce Johns, then age 28, of Grundy Center.

On Dec. 1, 2017, Johns’ body had been found by a farmer about 10 miles south of Charles City. An autopsy by the state medical examiner’s office confirmed the body was that of Johns, who had been reported missing by his mother in Grundy Center months earlier, and determined the cause of death was a head wound from a shotgun blast.

In a ruling filed last week, the Court of Appeals described the incident that led to the murder as “a methamphetamine deal gone wrong.”

During the trial, the Floyd County Attorney’s Office presented evidence that Adame, Johns and a third man were involved in an attempt to buy methamphetamine from a fourth man in Marshalltown, who said he needed a ride to Charles City.

After being given a package of drugs in Charles City, Adame discovered the drug was actually ibuprofen and he accused Johns of having “played them.”

After driving around for much of the night, the car with the four men pulled over on a gravel road, Adame got a sawed-off shotgun from the trunk and killed Johns, the prosecution said.

Adame appealed his conviction on charges of first-degree murder and felony possession of a firearm, argung that testimony by a former girlfriend of the murdered man should have been excluded from the trial.

The woman had testified about an encounter she said she witnessed between Adame and Johns where Adame had a sawed-off shotgun and had pointed it at the women.

Adame argued that the testimony was an improper character reference and was more prejudicial than probative (substantiating).

“Evidence of uncharged crimes or other bad acts is generally not admissible unless the evidence serves a non-character purpose, such as proving motive, intent, or absence of mistake,” the Court of Appeals acknowledged.

The Appeals Court determined that there was no abuse of discretion during the district court trial by allowing the testimony, because it was relevant to Adame’s intent and motive to harm Johns.

It called the ruling by District Court Judge Gregg Rosenbladt during the trial “thoughtful, carefully-considered.”

“All things considered, we believe the district court acted well within its discretion,” The Court of Appeals concluded.

In July 2020, Judge Rosenbladt had sentenced Adame to the mandatory life term for conviction on a charge of first-degree murder, and to a term in prison up to five years for conviction on a charge of possession of a firearm by a felon.

The judge also ordered Adame to pay $150,000 to the heir of the man Adame murdered, and ordered him to pay $15,316 to the Iowa Crime Victim Compensation Program.