CEDAR RAPIDS — A Marion man, who faced three state court trials for offenses involving firearms, now faces two because charges were dropped last month when federal prosecutors indicted him in the same incident.
Royal Rio Jones, 23, was charged in May in Linn County District Court in an April 19 shooting where bullets struck a car with three people inside. The shooting startled a tenant at a nearby apartment when bullets pierced his mattress while he was sleeping, according to a criminal complaint.
Jones was indicted July 21 in U.S. District Court, for possession of ammunition by a felon, which carries a federal sentence of 15 years in prison.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office asked the Linn County Attorney’s Office to dismiss the case because the federal case alleges the same facts and circumstances in the April 19 incident, according to court documents.
Jones has a previous conviction for possession of a firearm by a felon in 2022 and was released after serving about two years of a fiveyear sentence.
There are no details in the indictment, but the state court complaint stated three people — Arianna Jackson, Rowen Shaughnessy and a 17-year-old — told police they were in one vehicle April 19 when a man, later identified as Jones, left a nearby apartment building, raised a gun and started firing at the car. The three quickly fled the scene.
Witnesses nearby told police Jones and another person then fled on foot and were seen near some trees at a nearby apartment complex.
When Cedar Rapids police responded, they saw broken glass in the parking lot and collected 10 .45-caliber shell casings of the same brand, the complaint stated. Officers determined one of the bullets fired at Jackson’s car struck the rear passenger side of a nearby Chrysler 200.
Two other bullets damaged a building at 5100 16th Ave. SW, with one of the bullets entering an apartment, the complaint stated. That bullet came just under the occupant’s bedroom window and struck his mattress where he was sleeping. Another bullet entered his living room just over the sofa.
Officers found a Glock .45 by the trees where witnesses said Jones and the other man fled after shooting at Jackson’s car, according to the complaint. The Glock contained a .45-caliber cartridge of the same brand as the casings collected from the parking lot.
Later during a test fire of the Glock, officers determined the shell casings found at the scene were fired from that gun.
Officers also found video of the parking lot to help identify the shooter as Jones.
Jones also was charged earlier this month with first-degree robbery, along with two other men — Mikael Anthony White, 21, of Marion, and Josiah Q. Leach, 19, of Cedar Rapids — in an April 28 carjacking.
The three are accused of holding Michael Green at gunpoint, pistol-whipping, robbing him and making him drive to his home where they thought he had “a safe full of money.”
In another case, Jones is charged with possession of a firearm by a felon-second offense. Jones is accused of running from Marion police during the robbery and carjacking investigation when they attempted to interview him April 29, according to a criminal complaint.
Trish Mehaffey covers state and federal courts. She can be reached at
[email protected]
CEDAR RAPIDS — A Cedar Rapids man is accused of repeatedly trying to swallow bags of cocaine Tuesday to destroy evidence, according to a Linn County criminal complaint.
Police said they observed William A. Rutledge holding bags of packaged narcotics while asleep as a passenger in a vehicle parked in the 800 block of Shaver Road NE, according to the criminal complaint.
When officers asked Rutledge to exit the vehicle, he began eating the drugs to destroy the evidence. As officers grabbed Rutledge, he pulled away and tried to get into the back seat to consume more of the drugs, according to the complaint. Officers collected the drugs and placed them on the vehicle’s hood. Although handcuffed and walking toward the patrol vehicle, Rutledge made a quick gesture and tried to eat the drugs from the vehicle’s hood, according to the complaint.
Police field-tested the white crystalline substance and determined it was cocaine.
According to the criminal complaint, officers found marijuana, $1,587 in cash and two cellphones.
Rutledge was arrested on charges of intent to deliver cocaine — under 100 grams, a Class C felony; failure to affix a drug tax stamp, a Class D felony; interference with official acts — obstructing prosecution, an aggravated misdemeanor; possession of a controlled substance — marijuana; and interference with official acts, a simple misdemeanor.
Rutledge is being held at the Linn County Jail on a $19,000 cash or surety bond.
CEDAR RAPIDS — A Marion man, previously convicted for crashing into a vehicle and injuring a driver that prematurely terminated her pregnancy, pleaded this week to lesser charges for having indecent contact with two children.
Trenton Eiben, 43, originally charged with indecent contact with a child, an aggravated misdemeanor and indecent exposure, a serious misdemeanor, pleaded Monday to two misdemeanor charges of simple assault.
According to the plea, Eiben admitted to committing the acts July 16, 2018, through June 15, 2019, that intended to place each child in fear of immediate physical contact, which would have been “painful, injurious, insulting or offensive,” along with the ability to carry out the act.
At sentencing, the prosecutor will ask the judge to run the sentences consecutively for a total of 60 days in jail, according to court documents.
According to a criminal complaint, one child told a forensic interviewer at the UnityPoint-St. Luke’s Child Protection Center that Eiben forced her to touch him when she was 5 years old between July 16, 2018, and June 15, 2019.
Another child told an interviewer Eiben exposed himself to her during the 2018-2020 time frame, the complaint stated.
2025 CRASH
According to evidence in the crash case, Eiben had been talking with a Cedar Rapids police investigator before the crash Feb. 26, 2025. After leaving the police department, he called his wife to say he loved her before driving up to 100 mph down First Avenue E in Cedar Rapids.
Witnesses told police Eiben was eastbound down the center turn lane he crashed his Pontiac Sunfire into a Chevrolet Traverse, driven by Merylin Louise Bowden, now 40, of Cedar Rapids, who was traveling west in the 1300 block of First Avenue E.
According to the criminal complaint, witnesses described to police Eiben’s driving as “intentional and making no attempt to avoid collision.” They said Eiben had an open lane to the front and right of him, but instead drove into the westbound lanes, striking the Traverse.
Both Eiben and Bowden, who was 18 weeks pregnant, were injured and had to be extricated from their vehicles and taken to hospitals, according to the criminal complaint.
Bowden’s pregnancy was prematurely terminated as a result of her injuries.
She spent six weeks in the hospital with a broken pelvic bone and other fractures, and continues to have chronic pain every day, but most of her suffering came from having to say goodbye to her unborn child — a child she had already named and loved, Bowden said during Eiben’s sentencing in July. Eiben was sentenced in the crash to up to 25 years in prison for nonconsensual termination of a pregnancy during a forcible felony, a Class B felony, and willful injury resulting in serious injury, a Class C felony.
His sentencing on the assault convictions is set for Aug. 27.
Trish Mehaffey covers state and federal courts. She can be reached at trish.mehaffey@ thegazette.com
www.kcrg.com
