An Iowa man faces life in prison after being convicted of shooting a random mother who refused to “come get high” and told him to “f-k off” when he catcalled her in the street.
James Bernard Johnson, 43, was found guilty of first-degree murder on Wednesday in the 2024 death of 42-year-old Nikki Loffredo, whom he saw on the sidewalk just before 4 a.m. on July 27 and catcalled from his car to come party with him.
“Who are you?” “Never mind, f-k off,” Loffredo, a bartender, told Johnson as he drove by and leered out the window of his GMC SUV, according to the Polk County Attorney’s Office.
Johnson claimed he felt “disrespected” by Loffredo’s comments, so he pointed a pistol out the window and fired four shots at her before speeding away.
Loffredo was shot while walking down a quiet residential street outside a middle school.
Johnson claimed that he only fired the weapon at the ground to scare Loffredo, but she was fatally injured and died two days later.
He had seen Loffredo walking earlier in the day and planned to approach her when he saw her again. According to prosecutors, there was no prior connection between the two.
Johnson was arrested on August 2, after investigators discovered text messages between him and his girlfriend in which he admitted to having “popped” somebody earlier.
Johnson had been high on cocaine and marijuana the day of the shooting, but it is unclear whether he was intoxicated when he pulled the trigger.
He has previously been convicted of drug offenses.
Jurors deliberated for only hours following his weeklong trial.
He will be sentenced on June 20.
Loffredo’s family remembered her as “very kind and compassionate, and was always willing to help anyone in need.”
“She loved to spoil her nephews and take them to movies and Chuck E. Cheese,” her obituary reads.