Second defendant sentenced to 57 years in prison over 2018 murder of Chris Bagley

Nearly three years to the day after Chris Bagley disappeared, the man who stabbed him to death was sentenced to nearly 60 years in prison.

Bagley, a 31-year-old Walker resident, was last seen alive on Dec. 18, 2018. His disappearance sparked a lengthy search and a $25,000 reward before his remains were found in March 2019. An autopsy found he'd been stabbed 13 times in the neck and torso.

Prosecutors eventually charged Drew Blahnik, 34, of Marion and Drew Wagner, 36, with murder and abusing a corpse. Police said the men confronted Bagley in a mobile home, where Blahnik fatally stabbed him, and that then men then buried Bagley in Wagner's yard.

In subsequent court hearings, it emerged that Bagley and another man had robbed and assaulted Andy Shaw, a drug trafficker, in October 2018, and that Wagner and Blahnik worked with Shaw in the drug trade and confronted Bagley in retaliation for that incident. Shaw was later sentenced to eight years in prison on related drug charges.

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Wagner accepted a plea deal in June 2020 and was sentenced to 47 years in prison. At Blahnik's trial in July, Wagner testified for the prosecution.

Blahnik, who has since legally changed his name to Johnny Blahnik Church, admitted at trial to stabbing Bagley, but said it was an act of self-defense after Bagley brandished a gun. That claim was claim contradicted by Wagner, who said the gun was on the floor when Bagley was stabbed, and another witness, who said there was no gun present. The jury convicted Blahnik of second-degree murder and other offenses.

On Dec. 17, Blahnik was sentenced to 50 years for murder, five years for abuse of a corpse and two years for obstructing prosecution. He must serve a minimum of 35 years on the murder charge before he will be eligible for parole.

Judge Christopher Bruns ordered the three sentences to run consecutively "because Counts II and III (obstruction and abuse of a corpse) occurred after Count I (murder) and represented an attempt to avoid all responsibility for Count I. Further, after Count III occurred, efforts to obstruct prosecution as charged in Count II continued for more than 70 days."

Bruns also rejected Blahnik's motion for a new trial, writing on Dec. 8 that even if there had been a valid self-defense claim, "Blahnik stabbed Bagley so many times and with such ferocity that the force used was not reasonable."

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Bagley left behind a wife and two young children. His parents told the Des Moines Register after his death that he'd struggled with substance abuse but was devoted to his family.

"It doesn't matter if some people think he was a bad person; he was a person," his mother, Christine Bagley, said. "You don't treat anybody like that," she said. "You don't like him, so you take their life? You didn't just take their life, you took our lives, too."

William Morris covers courts for the Des Moines Register. He can be contacted at wrmorris2@registermedia.com, 715-573-8166 or on Twitter at @DMRMorris.