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…