2019 Archive | Court of Appeals Court Opinions

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Fayette County, John J. Bauercamper, Judge.  AFFIRMED.  Considered by Vaitheswaran, P.J., Tabor, J., and Blane, S.J.  Opinion by Blane, S.J.  (3 pages)

            Joshua Snyder appeals from his guilty plea, claiming the trial court did not state a factual basis on the record for his plea as required by Iowa Rule of Criminal Procedure 2.8(2).  OPINION HOLDS: Snyder was advised of the deadline to file a motion in arrest of judgment, so his failure to file one precludes us from considering the merits of his challenge to his guilty plea.  We affirm.

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Hardin County, Kurt J. Stoebe, Judge.  AFFIRMED.  Considered by Vogel, C.J., Bower, J., and Scott, S.J.  Opinion by Scott, S.J.  (7 pages)

            Nikolas Stephens appeals his conviction of leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death, contending: (1) the court abused its discretion in excluding evidence the pedestrian victim was impaired by drugs or alcohol at the time of the collision, (2) the court erred in declining to provide instructions to the jury concerning the victim’s negligence, and (3) the court abused its discretion in admitting the content of a text message as evidence because it was irrelevant and prejudicial.  OPINION HOLDS: Having found no abuse of discretion in the district court’s evidentiary rulings or legal error as to the claimed jury-instruction deficiencies, we affirm Stephens’s conviction of leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death.

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Scott County, Cheryl E. Traum, District Associate Judge.  AFFIRMED.  Considered by Potterfield, P.J., Doyle, J., and Carr, S.J.  Opinion by Carr, S.J.  (3 pages)

            Roosevelt Jerry Smith Sr. appeals his sentence for driving while barred as a habitual offender.  OPINION HOLDS: The court sentenced him to exactly the disposition contemplated by the plea agreement, except the court reduced the agreed fine and placed him on unsupervised probation, a topic on which the agreement is silent.  We find no abuse in the court’s exercise of discretion in sentencing.  Therefore, we affirm.

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Hamilton County, Kurt L. Wilke and James C. Ellefson, Judges.  AFFIRMED.  Considered by Mullins, P.J., Bower, J., and Gamble, S.J.  Opinion by Gamble, S.J.  (7 pages)

            Jacob Adams appeals his conviction for possession of methamphetamine, third offense.  He argues the district court erred in denying his motion to suppress because there was no probable cause to support a search warrant.  OPINION HOLDS:  There a substantial basis for the issuing magistrate to conclude probable cause existed to support the search warrant.

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Scott County, Mark R. Lawson, Judge.  AFFIRMED.  Considered by Vaitheswaran, P.J., Tabor, J., and Gamble, S.J.  Opinion by Gamble, S.J.  (4 pages)

            Seith Keith appeals his convictions for robbery in the first degree and willful injury resulting in bodily injury.  He contends there is insufficient evidence he intended to cause serious injury, which is a necessary element of both charges.  OPINION HOLDS: Surveillance video clearly shows Keith was armed with a knife, and there is substantial evidence to support the trial court’s finding that Keith used the knife in a manner that could have inflicted serious injury or death.  We, therefore, affirm.

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Polk County, Gregory D. Brandt, District Associate Judge.  AFFIRMED.  Considered by Vogel, C.J., Mullins, J., and Carr, S.J.  Opinion by Carr, S.J.  (4 pages)

            On appeal from his conviction for operating while intoxicated, Nathan Skeries challenges the denial of his motion to suppress evidence obtained during the traffic stop of his vehicle.  OPINION HOLDS: The officer had reasonable suspicion to initiate a traffic stop and investigate whether a traffic offense was being committed based on his belief that the lights on Skeries’s vehicle did not illuminate the road sufficiently under Iowa Code section 321.409(1)(b) (2018).  The officer also had reasonable suspicion to stop Skeries to investigate whether he was operating while intoxicated. 

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Marshall County, John J. Haney, Judge.  SENTENCE AFFIRMED IN PART, VACATED IN PART, AND REMANDED.  Considered by Vaitheswaran, P.J., and Tabor and May, JJ.  Opinion by Vaitheswaran, P.J. (3 pages)

            Following a guilty plea, Carl Meyers Jr. appeals his sentence, arguing the district court erroneously “ordered [him] to pay court costs without any showing that he had the reasonable ability to repay those obligations.”  OPINION HOLDS: Applying State v. Albright, 925 N.W.2d 144, 160–62 (Iowa 2019), we vacate the sentencing court’s assessment of court costs against Meyers pending the completion of a final restitution order and a subsequent determination of Meyers’ reasonable ability to pay.

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Woodbury County, Julie A. Schumacher, Judge.  REVERSED AND REMANDED.  Considered by Tabor, P.J., Bower, J., and Blane, S.J.  Opinion by Blane, S.J. (14 pages)

            The State on discretionary review challenges the district court’s grant of defendant Carter’s motion to suppress when an officer searched Carter, a pedestrian, based on the officer detecting the odor of marijuana emanating from Carter’s person.  The district court held that smell of marijuana alone, absent other circumstances, did not constitute probable cause. OPINION HOLDS:  Based upon Iowa Supreme Court precedent, an officer’s detection of an odor of marijuana emanating from a person by itself constitutes probable cause.  The district court erred in granting Carter’s motion to suppress.

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Polk County, Robert B. Hanson, Judge.  AFFIRMED.  Considered by Vaitheswaran, P.J., and Potterfield and Doyle, JJ.  Opinion by Doyle, J.  (5 pages)

            Terry Bragg appeals the district court’s decision to require he serve the sentence imposed in this case consecutive to his sentence in another case asserting the court considered an impermissible sentencing factor and therefore abused its discretion.  OPINION HOLDS: Upon our review, we find the district court did not abuse its discretion in its decision to require that the ten-year term of incarceration for the second-degree-robbery conviction be served consecutive to Bragg’s other sentence.  Accordingly, we affirm Bragg’s sentence.

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Mills County, James S. Heckerman (motion to suppress) and Timothy O’Grady (trial), Judges.  AFFIRMED.  Considered by Vogel, C.J., and Mullins and Bower, JJ.  Opinion by Mullins, J.  (5 pages)

            Timothy Runyon appeals his conviction of operating while intoxicated, second offense, contending the district court erred in denying his motion to suppress evidence.  OPINION HOLDS: We affirm the denial of Runyon’s motion to suppress and his conviction.

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Hardin County, James C. Ellefson, Judge.  AFFIRMED AS MODIFIED.  Considered by Potterfield, P.J., and Tabor and Bower, JJ.  Opinion by Tabor, J.  (20 pages)

            A father appeals the district court’s decree granting joint legal custody and placing physical care with the child’s mother.  On appeal, the father seeks to change the child’s surname to his own, expand visitation, share transportation, decrease child support, and alternate tax benefits.  OPINION HOLDS: Our de novo review leads us to most of the same conclusions as the district court: we affirm the district court’s resolution of the child’s name, its visitation schedule, allocation of transportation, the amount of child support, and the award of tax benefits to the mother.  But we agree with the father’s contention there should be an end date to the upward deviation in child support resulting from elevated childcare expenses when the mother removes the child from daycare.  Accordingly, we modify the decree to order the mother to notify the father when she stops paying for daycare at which time the child support payment will be reduced to align with the child support guidelines. 

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Polk County, Cynthia M. Moisan, District Associate Judge.  AFFIRMED.  Considered by Vogel, C.J., and Mullins and Bower, JJ.  Opinion by Vogel, C.J.  (4 pages)

            Jason Donald Hilbert was charged with third-degree theft after taking money from his employer.  He pled guilty to fourth-degree theft and was sentenced to a one-year term of incarceration.  On appeal, he raises two ineffective-assistance-of-counsel claims.  OPINION HOLDS: We find Hilbert failed to assert a cognizable claim for the first ineffective-assistance claim and we preserve the second claim for possible postconviction relief.