Johnqwez Deanthony Lewis, a 22-year-old Black man who had moved to Marshalltown around 2007, was shot to death at a local residence on the evening of March 25, 2020, at approximately 9:20 p.m. Officers and medics found Lewis and 27-year-old Devonte Allen Brooks with gunshot wounds; Lewis died at the scene and Brooks was taken to hospital and later released.

Investigators from the Marshalltown Police Department and the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation conducted an extensive inquiry, offering a reward of up to $1,000 early in the probe. Authorities say the shooting was believed to be retribution after the recent killing of the suspect’s brother. In February 2021, 37-year-old Robert J. Thomas of Marshalltown was arrested and charged with first-degree murder in Lewis’s death and attempted murder for Brooks’s injuries. A jury convicted Thomas in August 2021; he received a mandatory life term for murder plus 25 years for the attempted murder.

Johnqwez was remembered by his family as a free spirit who enjoyed music, dancing, and drawing and as a husband and father. If anyone has information about the events of March 25, 2020, or knew Johnqwez, please come forward.