The driver, identified as Jihad Abdul Malik Gasaway, 23, was booked on $50,000 bail into the Poweshiek County Jail on murder and abuse of a corpse charges in the death of Kemp Xavier Sherrod Harriel, 26, police said in a news release.
At the sheriff’s office, Gasaway allegedly told investigators he and the victim had left Cedar Rapids for Des Moines early that morning, the affidavit said.
He said he covered the victim because “I thought he was very cold” and “kept him warm because we were both cold,” the document said. “I didn’t know (victim) was gone until I watched the police eyes and read his lips. That’s when I started crying in the car. He was alive and talking to me.”
Investigators learned a vehicle had been reported in a ditch along I-80 near mile marker 205 at 6:01 that morning. Investigators also learned that the 2010 Malibu had been in a ditch while driven by the suspect sometime before stopping near mile marker 188, the affidavit said.
When asked if the victim was alive when the Malibu went into the ditch, the suspect allegedly said, “Yeah.”
When asked what happened to the victim, the defendant said, “We got into it.”