2020 Archive | Court of Appeals Court Opinions

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Pottawattamie County, Jeffrey L. Larson, Judge.  AFFIRMED.  Considered by Vaitheswaran, P.J., and Doyle and May, JJ.  Opinion by Doyle, J.  (10 pages)

            We filed our opinion in this case on April 15, 2020, but subsequently granted the father’s petition for rehearing.  Our April 15, 2020 decision is therefore vacated and this decision replaces it.  A mother appeals the district court’s order denying her request for physical care of the parties’ child, as well as a right to be offered additional time for visitation when the father is unavailable.  OPINION HOLDS: Upon our de novo review of the record, we agree with the district court’s determination that shared physical care of the parties’ child was in the child’s best interests.  Similarly, we concur with the district court's declination to include a right-of-first-refusal provision in its order, based on the unique facts of the case.  We decline the parties’ requests for appellate attorney fees.  Any costs on appeal are assessed equally to the parties.

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Scott County, John D. Telleen and Mary E. Howes, Judges.  CONVICTION AFFIRMED, SENTENCE VACATED IN PART, AND REMANDED.  Considered by Vaitheswaran, P.J., and Doyle and May, JJ.  Opinion by Doyle, J. (6 pages)

            Fredrick Carter appeals his conviction and sentence for willful injury causing bodily injury.  OPINION HOLDS: The district court did not abuse its discretion in overruling Carter’s objection to testimony he alleges was outside the scope of the minutes of evidence because the minutes sufficiently alerted him to the source and nature of the allegations against him.  Based on the evidence on the victim’s injury, substantial evidence supports a finding that Carter had the specific intent to cause serious injury.  But because the portion of the sentence imposing a law-enforcement-initiative surcharge is illegal, we vacate it and remand for entry of a corrected sentencing order.

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Scott County, Nancy S. Tabor, Judge.  AFFIRMED. Considered by Vaitheswaran, P.J., and Doyle and May, JJ.  Tabor, J., takes no part.  Opinion by May, J.  (3 pages)

            John Drenter appeals from the district court’s entry of appellate attorney fees on remand following an appeal from his dissolution decree.  OPINION HOLDS: The district court did not abuse its discretion in determining the amount of appellate attorney fees.  And the district court was not required to determine whether appellate attorney fees should be awarded on remand because this court already made that determination.

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Scott County, Mark R. Fowler, Judge.  AFFIRMED.  Considered by Tabor, P.J., and Mullins and Schumacher, JJ.  Opinion by Tabor, P.J.  (8 pages)

            Chad Miller appeals a district court order affirming the Scott County Board of Review’s classification of his Bettendorf property as residential.  Miller also challenges the valuation.  He contends he primarily uses the property for agricultural purposes and its assessed value should be $700,000 rather than $800,000. OPINION HOLDS: Because Miller failed to show genuine intent to turn a profit on the farming operation, we cannot find he overcame the presumption that the proper classification of his property was residential and not agricultural. Next, because we give weight to the district court’s credibility findings, the county’s witness valuation and comparable properties listings provided substantial evidence to support the district court valuation and classification of the real estate. We affirm.

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Woodbury County, Tod J. Deck, Judge.  AFFIRMED.  Considered by Vaitheswaran, P.J., and Doyle and May, JJ.  Opinion by May, J.  (3 pages)

            Brian Corey appeals his sentence on two drug felonies.  OPINION HOLDS: The sentencing court did not abuse its discretion in sentencing Corey to prison rather than probation.

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Lee (North) County, Michael J. Schilling and Mark E. Kruse, Judges.  AFFIRMED.  Considered by Tabor, P.J., and May and Greer, JJ.  Opinion by May, J.  (4 pages)

            Chad Vice appeals from a guilty plea.  OPINION HOLDS: By failing to file a motion in arrest of judgment, Vice waived any claim concerning defects in the plea colloquy.  And the record is not sufficiently developed for us to evaluate Vice’s ineffective-assistance claim.  So we preserve his claim for postconviction-relief proceedings.

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Scott County, Mary E. Howes and Thomas Reidel, Judges.  AFFIRMED.  Considered by Tabor, P.J., and Mullins and Schumacher, JJ.  Opinion by Schumacher, J.  (6 pages)

            Corey Morgan Sr. appeals his conviction for domestic abuse assault by impeding air flow causing bodily injury.  OPINION HOLDS: Morgan claims he received ineffective assistance because defense counsel did not object to the State’s breach of the plea agreement.  We find the State did not breach the plea agreement and, therefore, defense counsel had no obligation to object.  We affirm Morgan’s conviction.

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Cerro Gordo County, Colleen D. Weiland, Judge.  AFFIRMED.  Considered by Vaitheswaran, P.J., and Mullins and Ahlers, JJ.  Opinion by Vaitheswaran, P.J.  (3 pages)

            Michael Weatherspoon appeals from the summary dismissal of his fifth postconviction-relief application, arguing “the district court committed an error of law” in summarily ruling that State v. Plain, 898 N.W.2d 801, 829 (Iowa 2017), did not apply retroactively.  OPINION HOLDS: The postconviction court did not err in summarily dismissing Weatherspoon’s postconviction-relief application.

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Polk County, Joseph W. Seidlin, Judge.  AFFIRMED.  Considered by Tabor, P.J., and Mullins and Schumacher, JJ.  Opinion by Schumacher, J.  (6 pages)

            Jonas Holman appeals the district court decision on his motion for declaratory judgment concerning child support.  OPINION HOLDS: The evidence does not support a finding that the parties entered into a contract that provided Jonas would only be responsible to pay a reduced amount of child support.  Jonas did not preserve error on his claim mortgage payments he made should be offset against the total amount of his child support obligation.  We decline Catherine Holman’s request for appellate attorney fees.  We affirm the decision of the district court.

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Scott County, Nancy S. Tabor, Judge, and Christine Dalton, District Associate Judge.  AFFIRMED.  Considered by Vaitheswaran, P.J., and Mullins and Ahlers, JJ.  Tabor, J., takes no part.  Opinion by Mullins, J.  (5 pages)

            Marcia Beck appeals her conviction of third-degree theft, challenging the sufficiency of the evidence to support her conviction.  Specifically, she argues there is insufficient evidence to show she aided and abetted and the evidence on valuation was insufficient to establish theft in the third degree.  OPINION HOLDS: We find the evidence sufficient to support Beck’s conviction and affirm.

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Muscatine County, Mark D. Cleve and Mark Fowler, Judges.  AFFIRMED.  Considered by Vaitheswaran, P.J., and Mullins and Ahlers, JJ.  Opinion by Ahlers, J.  (8 pages)

            Robert Zwolanek was found guilty of domestic abuse assault with strangulation causing bodily injury and domestic abuse assault while using or displaying a dangerous weapon.  He appeals, claiming the district court erred by not granting his motion for judgment of acquittal and motion in arrest of judgment challenging the sufficiency of the evidence supporting the charges; the district court erred in failing to grant his motion for a new trial, claiming the verdicts were contrary to the weight of the evidence; and his trial counsel was ineffective for failing to ensure the jury was instructed on the definition of family or household members.  OPINION HOLDS: Finding sufficient evidence to support the guilty verdicts and no abuse of discretion in the district court’s denial of Zwolanek’s motion for a new trial, we affirm the convictions.  We do not consider his ineffective-assistance-of-counsel claim on direct appeal.

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Floyd County, Karen Kaufman Salic, District Associate Judge.  AFFIRMED.  Considered by Bower, C.J., and Greer and Ahlers, JJ.  Opinion by Ahlers, J.  (14 pages)

            The father of the child appeals from the juvenile court’s order terminating his parental rights under Iowa Code chapter 600A (2019).  OPINION HOLDS: On our de novo review, we find the statutory grounds for termination of parental rights of the father have been established by clear and convincing evidence.  In addition, termination of parental rights has been established to be in the child’s best interest by clear and convincing evidence.  We also reject the father’s arguments relating to the record.