2021 Archive | Court of Appeals Court Opinions

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Linn County, Patrick R. Grady, Judge.  AFFIRMED.  Considered by Doyle, P.J., and Tabor and Ahlers, JJ.  Opinion by Doyle, P.J.  (3 pages)

            Phyllis M. Rausch, as trustee of the William J. Rausch Family Trust, appeals a condemnation award providing compensation for a portion of trust property condemned by the City of Marion.  OPINION HOLDS: Because evidence of comparable sales was inadmissible through a lay witness who had no personal knowledge of the transactions, district court did not abuse its discretion in excluding it.

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Linn County, Casey D. Jones, District Associate Judge.  AFFIRMED.  Considered by Vaitheswaran, P.J., and Greer and Schumacher, JJ.  Opinion by Greer, J.  (7 pages)

            Patrick Martinson appeals his sentence for witness tampering, claiming the court abused its discretion by failing to state adequate reasons for imposing its sentence and did not fully address potential mitigating factors.  OPINION HOLDS: We affirm the district court’s sentence and find no abuse of discretion. 

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Louisa County, John M. Wright, Judge.  APPEAL DISMISSED.  Considered by Vaitheswaran, P.J., and Tabor and Ahlers, JJ.  Opinion by Vaitheswaran, P.J.  (3 pages)

            Cody Mousty appeals following his guilty plea to forgery, raising two ineffective-assistance-of-counsel claims.  OPINION HOLDS: Mousty pled guilty to a crime other than a class A felony and did not establish good cause for considering the appeal under Iowa Code section 814.6(1)(a)(3) (2019).  He solely raised ineffective-assistance-of-counsel claims, which cannot be decided on direct appeal, pursuant to section 814.7.  We dismiss Mousty’s appeal.

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Polk County, Scott D. Rosenberg, Judge.  AFFIRMED.  Considered by Bower, C.J., Doyle, J., and Scott, S.J.  Opinion by Scott, S.J.  (8 pages)

            Chester Greenup appeals the dismissal of his application for postconviction relief (PCR) on statute-of-limitations grounds.  Also submitted with the appeal is Greenup’s motion to disqualify appellate counsel pursuant to Iowa Code section 822.3A (Supp. 2019) and counsel’s motion to withdraw.  OPINION HOLDS: We deny Greenup’s motion to disqualify appellate counsel and counsel’s motion to withdraw.  We affirm the summary disposition of Greenup’s PCR application.

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Polk County, Jeanie Vaudt, Judge.  AFFIRMED.  Considered by Bower, C.J., and Doyle and Mullins, JJ.  Opinion by Mullins, J.  (5 pages)

            Tony Sihavong appeals the summary disposition of his application for postconviction relief.  OPINION HOLDS: We affirm the denial of Sihavong’s application on statute-of-limitations grounds.

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Floyd County, Christopher Foy, Judge.  AFFIRMED.  Considered by Vaitheswaran, P.J., Greer, J., and Gamble, S.J.  Opinion by Gamble, S.J.  (12 pages)

            Jennifer Bean appeals her conviction for attempt to commit murder.  She claims this district court abused its discretion when it denied her motion for a change of venue and violated Iowa Rule of Evidence 5.106 when it denied her request to admit roughly 20,000 text messages into evidence.  She also challenges the sufficiency of the evidence.  OPINION HOLDS: The district court did not abuse its discretion in denying the motion for a change of venue.  Bean did not make an offer of proof for her evidentiary challenge, so it is not preserved for our review.  Sufficient evidence supported Bean’s conviction for attempt to commit murder.

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Des Moines County, Mark E. Kruse, Judge.  AFFIRMED.  Considered by Tabor, P.J., May, J., and Potterfield, S.J.  Opinion by Potterfield, S.J.  (12 pages)

            Majestic Malone appeals his convictions for second-degree murder and third-degree kidnapping, contending the verdicts were against the weight of the evidence and the court erred in denying his challenge to the State’s use of a peremptory challenge.  OPINION HOLDS: Because the evidence does not preponderate heavily against the verdicts and because we give great deference to the district court’s finding that the State’s race-neutral reasons were not pretext, we affirm.

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Scott County, Christine Dalton Ploof, District Associate Judge, and Henry W. Latham II and Tamra Roberts, Judges.  AFFIRMED.  Considered by Vaitheswaran, P.J., and Tabor and Ahlers, JJ.  Opinion by Tabor, J.  (6 pages)

            Janya Hill appeals the judgment and sentence imposed after pleading guilty to first-degree theft and operating a motor vehicle without the owner’s consent.  OPINION HOLDS: We are unable to reach the merits of Hill’s claim on appeal because she did not show good cause under Iowa Code section 814.6(1)(a)(3) (2020) and her guilty plea waived any challenge to her transfer to adult court under State v. Yodprasit, 564 N.W.2d 383, 385 (Iowa 1997).  Thus we affirm both convictions.

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Scott County, Henry W. Latham II, Judge.  AFFIRMED.  Heard by Vaitheswaran, P.J., and Tabor and Ahlers, JJ.  Opinion by Vaitheswaran, P.J.  (7 pages)

            Craig Malin appeals from a jury verdict and judgment entered in favor of the defendants.  OPINION HOLDS: We affirm the verdict and judgment in favor of the defendants.

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Polk County, Samantha J. Gronewald, Judge.  AFFIRMED.  Considered by Vaitheswaran, P.J., and Tabor and Schumacher, JJ.  Opinion by Tabor, J.  Special Concurrence by Vaitheswaran, P.J.  (15 pages)

            Matthew Leonard appeals the dismissal of his second application for postconviction relief (PCR).  He contends the district court should have allowed an amendment to his pro se application and should not have dismissed his actual-innocence claim without a hearing.  He adds a new argument on appeal: that his second PCR counsel was ineffective in failing to timely file the amendment.  OPINION HOLDS: Because Leonard’s belated claims did not relate back to his original pleading, the court did not abuse its discretion in denying the motion to amend.  Likewise, summary dismissal was appropriate because Leonard failed to allege sufficient proof that he was actually innocent.   Finally, Leonard cannot show he was prejudiced by the performance of his second PCR counsel.  Thus, we affirm denial of the motion to amend and the summary dismissal.  SPECIAL CONCURRENCE ASSERTS: I specially concur.  I too would affirm the district court’s summary disposition of the postconviction-relief application as time-barred, but I would not reach the merits of Leonard’s actual-innocence claim.

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Osceola County, Don E. Courtney, Judge.  AFFIRMED.  Heard by Doyle, P.J., and Tabor and Ahlers, JJ., but decided en banc.  Opinion by Tabor, J.  (17 pages)

            Kurt Kraai appeals his conviction of second-degree sexual abuse.  He claims the district court erred in giving the jury a noncorroboration instruction.  OPINION HOLDS: Disavowing a prior unpublished disposition, we now conclude that giving the noncorroboration instruction was error.  But because the jury’s guilty verdict was “surely unattributable” to the faulty instruction, we affirm. 

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Cerro Gordo County, DeDra L. Schroeder, Judge.  AFFIRMED.  Considered by Bower, C.J., and Vaitheswaran and Greer, JJ.  Opinion by Bower, C.J.  (7 pages)

            Michael Terry Williams appeals the district court’s dismissal of his second application for postconviction relief (PCR).  OPINION HOLDS: We affirm the district court’s ruling the application was not timely and determine the record is not adequate to address Williams’s claim of ineffective assistance by his second PCR counsel.