Man Wanted in 2 Iowa Murders Captured in L.A.

An Iowa man wanted in connection with two execution-style murders in that state was arrested Tuesday in Van Nuys as he tried to flee police, officials said.

Joey Wheels, 25, of Des Moines, jumped from a rear window of an apartment in the 15800 block of Saticoy Street as officers burst through the unit’s front door at 6:30 p.m., but police stationed behind the building were waiting for him, authorities said.

He was being held without bail on a warrant charging him with first-degree murder of two women in an isolated farmhouse 35 miles west of Des Moines in July. A man in the house was critically wounded. Each victim had been bound and shot once in the head. A 4-year-old boy in the house was unharmed, police said.

Three other suspects have been arrested in Iowa since the murders, investigators said. Police said two of those suspects described themselves as members of a branch of the Crips, a Los Angeles street gang. Investigators said drug trafficking may have played a role in the shootings, but they offered no details.