Waterloo man charged with murder; body was found near Charles City in 2017

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com 

A Waterloo man currently serving time in prison has been charged with murder for the death of a man whose body was discovered south of Charles City in December 2017.

The Floyd County Sheriff’s Office, Grundy County Sheriff’s Office and agents with the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation arrested Armando Adame III, age 27, on Tuesday at the Fort Dodge Correctional Facility, where he was serving a sentence on unrelated convictions.

He was transported to the Floyd County courthouse Tuesday for an initial court appearance, where he was charged with murder in the first degree and possession of a firearm or offensive weapon as a felon. He was then returned to the Fort Dodge medium security state prison, according to a spokesperson at the Floyd County Jail.

According to a report by the Iowa Department of Public Safety, Adame is accused of killing Michael Bruce Johns, age 28, of Grundy Center.

Johns had been reported missing in October 2017 by his

mother. An officer with the Grundy Center Police Department told the Press on Oct. 31, 2017, that Johns may have been dropped off in Charles City by someone, and there was no evidence of foul play.

“He may simply have decided to go off the grid, but his family is worried about him,” the officer said in October 2017, after people in the Charles City area had been asked for their help in locating Johns.

About a month later, on Dec. 1, 2017, a body was found by a farmer about 10 miles south of Charles City, near the intersection of 290th Street and Shadow Avenue.

An autopsy by the Office of the State Medical Examiner confirmed the identity of the body as Johns, and determined the cause of death was a head wound from a shotgun blast.

According to the criminal complaint filed with the Floyd County District Court, the alleged murder occurred about Oct. 25, 2017.

In November, while officers were investigating Johns’ disappearance but before the body had been found, it was determined that Johns, Adame and a third person were together on Oct. 24 and 25, court records state.

Based on the investigation and an interview with Adame, a search warrant was served on Nov. 17 at a residence in Waterloo where Adame was staying, and a sawed-off 12-gauge shotgun and 12-gauge shotgun ammunition were found, the complaint alleges.

An analysis by the DCI found a latent handprint on the shotgun that was identified as belonging to Adame, the court records say.

When Johns’ body was discovered in December, the location was found to be consistent with an area where cell phone activity records showed Johns, Adama and the third person had been Oct. 24 and 25.

On Dec. 7, Adame was arrested on federal firearms charges regarding his alleged possession of the sawed-off shotgun and ammunition.

“During a subsequent interview with the other individual who was with Johns and Adame on October 24th & 25th, 2017, it was learned that while driving back from Charles City during the early morning of October 25th, 2017, Adame and Johns got into an argument inside the vehicle. The other individual stated that while they were stopped on a gravel road, Adame pulled Johns out of the vehicle and then shot and killed Johns with a sawed-off shotgun,” the criminal complaint alleges.

The complaint was signed by DCI Special Agent Scott Reger.

On May 10, 2018, Adame pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to possession of a firearm and ammunition by a felon and possession of an unregistered destructive device. On Oct. 24, 2018, he was sentenced to serve 25 years in federal prison on the federal firearms charges.

According to the criminal complaint filed in Floyd County District Court, as part of Adame’s plea agreement on the federal weapons charge he admitted to possession of the shotgun on Oct. 25, 2017, the day of the alleged murder.

According to the Iowa Department of Corrections, Adame was being held at the state prison in Fort Dodge on felony burglary charges.

The Johns case was a joint investigation by the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, the Grundy County Sheriff’s Office, the Waterloo Police Department, the Floyd County Sheriff’s Office, the Iowa Division of Narcotics Enforcement, the Iowa Attorney General’s Office, the Iowa Office of the State Medical Examiner, the Floyd County Attorney’s Office, the Grundy County Attorney’s Office, and the Black Hawk County Attorney’s Office, according to a press release from the Iowa Dept. of Public Safety.