Murder trial set to start this week in death of man found near Charles City

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

A Waterloo man is scheduled to begin trial this week for the murder of a man whose body was discovered south of Charles City in December 2017.

But first a hearing will be held Tuesday morning in Floyd County District Court on several issues including a notice by the defense of a potential challenge to the jury pool.

Armando Adame III, age 28, was arrested in January 2019 after an investigation by the Floyd County Sheriff’s Office, the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, the Grundy County Sheriff’s Office and others.

Adame was charged with murder in the first degree, a Class A felony, for allegedly killing Michael Bruce Johns, age 28, of Grundy Center. Adame was also charged with possession of a firearm or offensive weapon as a felon, a Class D felony.

On Jan. 24, Adame’s attorney, Matthew Pittenger of Mason City, filed notice that the defense would likely challenge the jury pool available for the trial, because the method used to identify potential jurors systematically underrepresents some groups such as African Americans, Hispanics and other non-white groups.

The Iowa jury pool selection process has been challenged numerous times, and in May 2019 the Iowa Supreme Court clarified methods to determine if a jury is representative of its community, based on the court’s ruling in three cases on appeal, including one from Floyd County.

In that Floyd County case, the Iowa Supreme Court conditionally upheld the second-degree murder conviction of Antoine Williams for a Charles City shooting in 2017, but ordered that a hearing be held to determine if Williams’ jury had been representative, and to hold another trial if the jury was not representative.

That hearing on Williams’ case has been postponed a couple of times, and is currently scheduled for March 27.

In the Adame trial set to begin this week, Adame is accused of killing Michael Johns on Oct. 25, 2017.

According to the Grundy Center Police Department, Johns had been reported missing in October 2017 by his mother. He was thought to have been dropped off in Charles City by someone, and at the time no foul play was suspected.

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 an amended document in Floyd County District Court, the alleged murder occurred on 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, 2017, court records state.

Based on the investigation and an interview with Adame, a search warrant was served on Nov. 17, 2017, at a residence in Waterloo where Adame was then staying, and a sawed-off 12-gauge shotgun and 12-gauge shotgun ammunition were found, the court documents state.

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

On Dec. 7, 2017, Adame was arrested on federal firearms charges regarding his possession of the sawed-off shotgun and ammunition.

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.

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.

When Johns’ body was discovered in December 2017, the location was found to be consistent with an area where cell phone activity records showed Johns, Adame and the third person had been on Oct. 24 and 25, court records say.

A Division of Criminal Investigation special agent reported that an interview with the third person alleged that Adame and Johns got into a fight inside a vehicle while driving back from Charles City early in the morning Oct. 25.

“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 statement said.

If the trial proceeds as scheduled after the Tuesday hearing, jury selection for the Adame trial will begin Wednesday morning. The district courtroom is potentially reserved through Wednesday, Feb. 12, for the trial.