Nikki Loffredo was shot to death, in the words of prosecutor Levi Grove, as “an innocent woman in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Loffredo, 42, of Des Moines was shot multiple times on a residential sidewalk in July 2024, and died several days later at a hospital. The shooter, as acknowledged by defense attorneys, was James Johnson, 43. But Johnson, who had no connection to Loffredo before the shooting, claimed he’d been aiming at the ground and denied intending to kill her.
Polk County prosecutors argued otherwise, and proved their case to the satisfaction of a jury, which convicted Johnson on April 9 of first-degree murder for Loffredo’s death.
Loffredo, who was shot in the early morning hours while walking home from buying some snacks, was able to describe her attacker and his vehicle to the first responding officers, and police had identified Johnson as a suspect within an hour of the shooting. Jurors saw numerous videos from surveillance and doorbell cameras showing a gold-colored SUV circling the area, then pulling up beside Loffredo, pausing for a few seconds, then speeding away as she falls to the ground.
Investigators also learned that a friend of Johnson’s had pawned a handgun for him. His DNA was found on the pistol, and ballistics testing matched it to bullet casings found at the scene.
“He was trolling the neighborhood looking for a reason to use that gun,” Grove said in his opening statement.
On stand, Johnson claims intent was to frighten, not kill
Johnson’s attorneys told jurors that “you cannot deny the undeniable” and that Johnson was, in fact, the shooter. But the lawyers said they believe the evidence would show it was not a premeditated act of murder.
The sole witness for the defense was Johnson himself, who testified that he was a lifelong marijuana and cocaine user. On the night of the shooting, he said, he’d been out smoking weed and making food deliveries with a friend and had had an argument by phone with his girlfriend. “I didn’t want to go home and argue and fight,” he said, so he began aimlessly driving around the neighborhood.
Johnson passed Loffredo several times while driving, and although a stranger, said he thought she might be interested in getting high or hooking up. At an intersection, he rolled down his window and “told her to come check it out,” he said.
She responded, he testified, with profanity.
“It pissed me off,” he said. “I felt disrespected.”
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Johnson said he pulled up next to her and fired four shots — with a gun that, due to several prior drug felonies, he was not permitted to have — that he said were aimed at the sidewalk with the intent to scare Loffredo. Then he drove away, not realizing that Loffredo had been hit in both thighs, including with one shot that pierced her femoral artery and caused catastrophic blood loss.
Yet evidence showed Johnson, who was arrested on Aug. 2, had texted his girlfriend that he had recently “popped” somebody.
Johnson admitted to telling many lies in multiple police interviews, but said he’s felt extreme guilt that led him to admit responsibility for the shooting in a March message to his girlfriend sent on a jail computer.
“I never wanted to be responsible for something like that,” said Johnson, who teared up at one point. “I feel bad, I feel terrible. I didn’t mean to hurt her, I certainly didn’t mean to kill her.”
Johnson faces life in prison when he is sentenced on June 20.
Contributing: José Mendiola, The Des Moines Register
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Man convicted of killing woman who rejected catcall
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