November 2022 Archive | Court of Appeals Court Opinions

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Mills County, Jeffrey L. Larson, Judge.  AFFIRMED.  Considered by Bower, C.J., and Vaitheswaran and Tabor, JJ.  Opinion by Vaitheswaran, J.  (4 pages)

            Mark Troutman appeals the denial of his application for postconviction relief, asserting ineffective assistance of counsel.  OPINION HOLDS: The record overwhelmingly establishes Troutman’s guilt.  Troutman failed to establish prejudice, and the district court appropriately denied all his ineffective-assistance-of-counsel claims.

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Polk County, Celene Gogerty, Judge.  AFFIRMED.  Considered by Vaitheswaran, P.J., and Greer and Schumacher, JJ.  Opinion by Greer, J.  (9 pages)

Jonathan Rodriguez Leyva appeals the denial of his application for postconviction relief (PCR).  Rodriguez Leyva generally re-raises issues he brought in his PCR application to the district court, claiming trial counsel provided ineffective assistance by failing to (1) challenge the search warrant under Iowa Code section 321J.10 (2015); (2) better prepare him for allocution at sentencing; and (3) obtain an expert in retrograde extrapolation.  OPINION HOLDS: Rodriguez Leyva’s claim about trial counsel’s failure to move for suppression under section 321J.10(1)(a) is not preserved for our review.  He has not established his other two claims of ineffective assistance.  We affirm the district court’s denial of his PCR application.

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Pottawattamie County, Michael D. Hooper, Judge.  AFFIRMED IN PART, VACATED IN PART, AND REMANDED.  Considered by Bower, C.J., Tabor, J., and Potterfield, S.J.  Buller, J., takes no part.  Opinion by Potterfield, S.J.  (22 pages)

            Jimmy Carr appeals from his convictions and sentences for first-degree robbery, assault, interference with official acts, and felon in possession of a firearm.  OPINON HOLDS: The district court did not abuse its discretion in declining to give the specific explicit-bias instruction Carr requested.  It was an error to give the instruction on participating in a public offense, but Carr was not prejudiced by the error.  Substantial evidence supports Carr’s convictions for assault and first-degree robbery.  But, because assault is a lesser-included of the robbery charge and there is not substantial evidence of multiple assaults, Carr’s assault conviction should merge with the robbery conviction.  We vacate the assault conviction and remand for dismissal of that count.  Finally, the district court did not abuse its discretion in denying Carr’s motion for new trial.

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Pottawattamie County, James S. Heckerman, Judge.  AFFIRMED.  Considered by Vaitheswaran, P.J., Ahlers, J., and Doyle, S.J.  Opinion by Doyle, S.J.  (8 pages)

            Scott Marinovic appeals the denial of his application for post-conviction relief.  OPINION HOLDS: Marinovic’s counsel did not provide ineffective assistance by allowing Marinovic to plead guilty to second-degree theft or in representing him during probation-revocation proceedings.  Nor did counsel provide ineffective assistance by failing to raise a meritless constitutional claim.

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Story County, Steven P. Van Marel, District Associate Judge.  AFFIRMED.  Considered by Bower, C.J., Tabor, J., and Potterfield, S.J.  Opinion by Bower, C.J.  (4 pages)

            Carson Sinclair was convicted of operating a motor vehicle without the owner’s consent, in violation of Iowa Code section 714.7 (2021).  Sinclair appeals the denial of his request that the court instruct the jury on the definition of “operating a motor vehicle.”  OPINION HOLDS: The jury was properly instructed about the two statutory elements of the offense.  We affirm.

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Black Hawk County, Bradley J. Harris, Judge.  AFFIRMED.  Considered by Bower, C.J., Ahlers, JJ., and Scott, S.J.  Opinion by Ahlers, J.  (4 pages)

            Donshey Reed appeals the dismissal of his application for postconviction relief (PCR).  OPINION HOLDS: This PCR application is untimely.  Even assuming the relation-back doctrine applies here, this PCR application was not filed promptly after the conclusion of the first PCR action.  Reed’s equitable-tolling and constitutional arguments are not preserved for our review.

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Black Hawk County, Kellyann M. Lekar, Judge.  AFFIRMED.  Considered by Vaitheswaran, P.J., and Greer and Schumacher, JJ.  Opinion by Schumacher, J. (14 pages)

            Daniel Definbaugh appeals his convictions for two counts of second-degree sexual abuse, alleging insufficient evidence corroborates his admissions.  He also claims statements made at his house should be suppressed because they were made prior to receiving his Miranda warnings.  He alleges questioning at the police station occurred after he invoked his right to counsel.  He also claims questioning at both locations included promises of leniency.  OPINION HOLDS: We find sufficient evidence supports Definbaugh’s admissions.  The district court properly denied Definbaugh’s motion to suppress his admissions at his residence.  And while we determine the statements made at the law enforcement center were made after an invocation of counsel, such statements were cumulative to previous statements made by Definbaugh.  Lastly, we determine no promises of leniency were made.  Accordingly, we affirm. 

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Clarke County, Terry R. Rickers, Judge.  AFFIRMED.  Considered by Ahlers, P.J., and Badding and Chicchelly, JJ.  Opinion by Chicchelly, J.  (5 pages)

            Martin Moon appeals the dismissal of his application for postconviction relief (PCR) concerning his conviction for murder in the first degree.  He maintains summary dismissal was improper because he alleges newly discovered evidence and potential Brady violations.  OPINION HOLDS: Moon failed to establish that he could not have raised the newly discovered evidence earlier in the exercise of due diligence.  We therefore affirm the dismissal of his PCR application.

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Webster County, Jennifer A. Miller, Judge.  AFFIRMED.  Considered by Schumacher, P.J., Chicchelly, J., and Carr, S.J.  Opinion by Carr, S.J.  (7 pages)

            Chelsea Clayton appeals the physical care determination for her children with Aundre Whitfield.  OPINION HOLDS: We agree with the district court that placing physical care of the children with Aundre will best provide stability and continuity.  We decline to award appellate attorney fees.

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Clayton County, Richard D. Stochl, Judge.  CONVICTION CONDITIONALLY AFFIRMED, RULING ON NEW TRIAL MOTION VACATED AND REMANDED.  Considered by Vaitheswaran, P.J., and Greer and Schumacher, JJ.  Opinion by Vaitheswaran, P.J.  (6 pages)

            Manual Seenster appeals the district court’s denial of his motions in arrest of judgment and for a new trial, arguing the State failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he intentionally delivered methamphetamine to another person and the verdict was contrary to the law and evidence.  OPINION HOLDS: We conditionally affirm Seenster’s conviction but vacate the ruling on the new trial motion and remand for application of the weight-of-the-evidence standard.

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Black Hawk County, Bradley J. Harris, Judge.  AFFIRMED.  Considered by Bower, C.J., Tabor, J., and Potterfield, S.J.  Opinion by Potterfield, S.J.  (3 pages)

            A jury convicted Michael Heggebo of willful injury causing serious injury.  He appeals, arguing the greater weight of the credible evidence shows he was acting in self-defense and had no intention of seriously injuring Derrius Hollis.  OPINION HOLDS: We find no abuse of discretion by the district court; we affirm. 

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Scott County, Mark R. Lawson, Judge.  AFFIRMED.  Considered by Vaitheswaran, P.J., Schumacher, J., and Blane, S.J.  Opinion by Blane, S.J.  (8 pages)

            Davon Antwon Wright appeals his sentence following conviction for escape from custody as a habitual offender, a class “D” felony.  The district court, applying Iowa Code section 903A.5(1) (2021), found he was not entitled to receive credit for time served.  Wright asserts the supreme court COVID-19 supervisory order extending the speedy trial deadline resulted in him being detained an additional 236 days and this constitutes cruel and unusual punishment.  He argues his sentence is inconsistent with the legislative intent of section 903A.5(1) because the legislature did not contemplate significant extensions of the speedy trial deadline that occurred during the pandemic.  He further argues applying the statute as written, alongside the speedy trial extension, constituted a grossly disproportionate sentence.  OPINION HOLDS: We find no error in the district court’s conclusion it had no discretion in applying section 903A.5 to deny Wright credit.  We further find the resulting sentence was not grossly disproportionate to the offense and consequently did not constitute cruel and unusual punishment.