2021 Archive | Court of Appeals Court Opinions

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Polk County, Jeffrey D. Farrell, Judge.  AFFIRMED.  Considered by Vaitheswaran, P.J., and Greer and Schumacher, JJ.  Opinion by Schumacher, J.  (20 pages).

Edward Miller Jr. appeals his convictions of attempted murder, willful injury causing bodily injury, assault while participating in a felony, going armed with intent, felon in possession of a firearm, and conspiracy to obstruct prosecution.  OPINION HOLDS: Miller claims substantial evidence does not support the jury’s guilty verdicts.  He also argues the trial court erred in denying his motion for a new trial and erred in evidentiary rulings, including improperly allowing prior bad acts evidence.  We find the verdicts supported by substantial evidence.  We determine the district court did not err in the evidentiary rulings or in denying Miller’s motion for a new trial.  Accordingly, we affirm.

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Guthrie County, Thomas P. Murphy, Judge.  AFFIRMED.  Considered by May, P.J., and Greer and Schumacher, JJ.  Opinion by Greer, J.  (12 pages)

            Dennis Glenn challenges the sufficiency of the evidence on his convictions for possession of marijuana and possession of methamphetamine.  He claims the State did not prove he knowingly possessed marijuana or methamphetamine, and did not prove he possessed methamphetamine, arguing possession of methamphetamine residue is not enough to support his conviction.  In addition, Glenn claims the district court erred in denying his request for a new trial, pointing to newly discovered evidence.  OPINION HOLDS: We affirm Glenn’s convictions for possession of marijuana and possession of methamphetamine, as the verdicts were supported by substantial evidence.  We also find the newly presented evidence does not justify granting Glenn’s request for a new trial.

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Clinton County, Mark R. Lawson, Judge.  AFFIRMED.  Considered by Doyle, P.J., and Mullins and May, JJ.  Opinion by May, J.  (5 pages)

            William Worrels appeals his conviction of possession of a controlled substance.  OPINION HOLDS: Because Worrels did not preserve error, we cannot reach the merits of his appeal.

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Calhoun County, Adria Kester, Judge.  AFFIRMED.  Considered by May, P.J., and Greer and Schumacher, JJ.  Opinion by May, P.J.  (6 pages)

            Lessors Kelly and Cheryl Angstrom appeal a district court order declaring their lease agreement with Calhoun County void.  OPINION HOLDS: The district court was correct in declaring the lease agreement void.

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Polk County, Joseph Seidlin, Judge.  REVERSED AND REMANDED.  Heard by Bower, C.J., and Tabor and Ahlers, JJ.  Opinion by Bower, C.J.  (11 pages)

            Core Structural Services LLC (Core) appeals the district court’s denial of its motion for attorney fees incurred during arbitration.  OPINION HOLDS: We find the attorney fees incurred during an integrally-related contract arbitration may be awarded at the court’s discretion under the statutory provision for mechanic’s lien attorney fees.  We reverse and remand for the district court to consider Core’s attorney fees request.

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Black Hawk County, Linda M. Fangman, Judge.  AFFIRMED.  Considered by Doyle, P.J., Mullins, J., and Gamble, S.J.  Opinion by Gamble, S.J.  (6 pages)

            Undray Jermaine Reed appeals his conviction for eluding.  OPINION HOLDS: Because Reed raises an issue not presented to the district court, we are unable to address it.  We therefore affirm.

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Lee (South) County, Mary Ann Brown, Judge.  AFFIRMED.  Considered by May, P.J., and Greer and Schumacher, JJ.  Opinion by Greer, J.  (5 pages)

            Ricky Riddle appeals the denial of his application for postconviction relief (PCR) following his 2017 conviction for intimidation with a dangerous weapon.  He claims his trial counsel was ineffective because she failed to utilize statements from a pretrial deposition to impeach a witness.  OPINION HOLDS: Because trial counsel elicited the information from the State’s witness that Riddle maintains the jury needed to hear, and he has not established that doing so in a different way would have led to his acquittal, Riddle has not demonstrated the requisite prejudice element of ineffective assistance.  And we do not consider Riddle’s new claim that trial counsel committed structural error.  We affirm denial of Riddle’s PCR application.

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Des Moines County, Michael J. Schilling, Judge.  AFFIRMED.  Considered by May, P.J., and Greer and Schumacher, JJ.  Opinion by May, P.J.  (5 pages)

            Gilbert Simon appeals his conviction of theft in the second degree.  OPINION HOLDS: Simon failed to preserve error on his objection to a witness’s testimony on the value of the stolen property.

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Harrison County, Margaret Reyes, Judge.  AFFIRMED AS MODIFIED ON APPEAL; AFFIRMED ON CROSS-APPEAL.  Considered by Vaitheswaran, P.J., and Tabor and Ahlers, JJ.  Opinion by Ahlers, J.  (13 pages)

            Katie Johnsen appeals and Matthew (Matt) Johnsen cross-appeals from the decree dissolving their nine-year marriage.  OPINION HOLDS: In order to achieve equity between the parties, we order Matt to pay to Katie $74,000.00 within ninety days of the issuance of procedendo.  We reject Katie’s requests to reassign the value of the hoop building, order the parties to abstain from consumption of alcohol during their parenting time, grant a right of first refusal after four hours, and reduce Matt’s visitation.  We also reject Matt’s request to grant the parties joint physical care of the parties’ children.

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Cerro Gordo County, Chris Foy, Judge.  AFFIRMED.  Considered by May, P.J., and Greer and Schumacher, JJ.  Opinion by Greer, J.  (13 pages)

            Kenneth Adams appeals from the denial of his application for postconviction relief (PCR) following his conviction for child endangerment resulting in death.  Adams asserts the PCR court erred in rejecting three ineffective-assistance-of-counsel claims: (1) Trial counsel was ineffective for failing to seek exclusion of a medical examiner’s expert opinion testimony on cause and manner of death; (2) trial counsel was ineffective for failing to move for a mistrial after the medical examiner questioned her knowledge of copyright law on cross-examination; (3) trial counsel was ineffective for failing to request a jury instruction stating guilt cannot be inferred from a criminal defendant’s decision not to testify at trial.  OPINION HOLDS: Adams fails to demonstrate breach of an essential duty in any of his ineffective-assistance claims.  We affirm the PCR court’s denial of relief. 

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Polk County, Lawrence P. McLellan, Judge.  AFFIRMED.  Considered by Vaitheswaran, P.J., and Tabor and Ahlers, JJ.  Opinion by Ahlers, J.  (5 pages)

            Plaintiffs Sabrina and Michael McIntosh appeal the order granting summary judgment to and dismissing their claims against Classic Builders, Inc. for damages stemming from water seepage into their basement.  OPINION HOLDS: Based on the failure of the McIntoshes to generate a genuine issue of material fact that any of the three conditions identified by their expert as possible causes of the seepage actually existed, the district court properly granted Classic Builders’s summary judgment motion and denied the McIntoshes’ own.

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Johnson County, Chad Kepros, Judge.  AFFIRMED.  Heard by Vaitheswaran, P.J., and Greer and Schumacher, JJ.  Opinion by Vaitheswaran, P.J.  Special concurrence by Schumacher, J.  (20 pages)

            David Weltman appeals his judgment and sentence for second-degree sexual abuse.  Weltman contends (1) the evidence was insufficient to support the jury’s finding of guilt; (2) the district court abused its discretion in admitting evidence of subsequent bad acts; (3) the prosecutor impermissibly vouched for the credibility of the child witness; and (4) the district court abused its discretion in admitting expert testimony on grooming behavior and children’s demeanor.  OPINION HOLDS: We affirm Weltman’s judgment and sentence.  SPECIAL CONCURRENCE ASSERTS: Although the prosecutor vouched for witness credibility during closing arguments, this isolated statement alone did not result in the denial of a fair trial to the defendant.