July 2025 Archive | Court of Appeals Court Opinions

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Cerro Gordo County, Adam D. Sauer and Karen Kaufman Salic, Judges.  CONVICTIONS CONDITIONALLY AFFIRMED; SENTENCES VACATED IN PART AND REMANDED WITH INSTRUCTIONS.  Considered without oral argument en banc.  Opinion by Greer, J.  Special concurrence by Buller, J.  Special concurrence by Langholz, J., Partial Dissent by Ahlers, J.  (31 pages)

            Jacob Cullum appeals the denial of his motion to suppress, the denial of his motion for new trial, and his sentence.  He argues the district court wrongly: (1) denied his motion to suppress because the officer who stopped him lacked reasonable suspicion, (2) denied his motion for new trial after applying the wrong standard, and (3) engaged in a fixed sentencing scheme or failed to realize it had the discretion to suspend the fines.  OPINION HOLDS: Because the officer had reasonable suspicion to initiate the traffic stop, we affirm the denial of his motion to suppress.  On his second claim, we agree the district court used the wrong standard when ruling on his motion for a new trial; we conditionally affirm his convictions but remand to the district court for application of the correct standard.  Finally, the district court failed to recognize and exercise its discretion to suspend the fines, so we vacate Cullum’s sentences.  If Cullum’s motion for new trial is denied and his convictions affirmed, he is to be resentenced.   SPECIAL CONCURRENCE ASSERTS: I concur in the judgment to vacate the fine, finding myself in part boxed in by existing supreme court precedent.   But I would encourage the elected branches to clarify by statute whether suspended fines may be imposed absent probation.  SPECIAL CONCURRENCE ASSERTS:  As a matter of first principles of statutory interpretation, I agree 100% with the partial dissent’s thoughtful textual analysis of our sentencing statutes.  But even so, I reluctantly concur in the judgment to reverse and remand for resentencing on the fine because we do not get to follow those first principles when our supreme court has already rejected that precise interpretation in a materially identical statute.  PARTIAL DISSENT ASSERTS: Because I believe the district court correctly determined that it could not suspend the fines without also placing the defendant on probation, and the court determined that probation was not appropriate in this case, the district court did not abuse its discretion in sentencing the defendant.  The defendant is not entitled to resentencing.

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Lee (North) County, Clinton R. Boddicker, Judge.  AFFIRMED.  Considered without oral argument by Schumacher, P.J., Chicchelly, J., and Potterfield, S.J.  Opinion by Potterfield, S.J.  (3 pages)

            Inmate Michael Gordon initiated a civil suit claiming certain items of his personal property were improperly confiscated by prison officials and asking for the return of his property or “reimbursement” of $50,174.99.  The district court dismissed the lawsuit after Gordon failed to pay any amount of the filing fee; Gordon appeals the dismissal.  OPINION HOLDS: We affirm.

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Woodbury County, Jeffrey Neary, Judge.  AFFIRMED.  Heard at oral argument by Greer, P.J., and Badding and Chicchelly, JJ.  Opinion by Badding, J.  (17 pages)

            Christopher Moyle appeals his conviction and sentence for stalking, challenging the admission of evidence regarding his prior bad acts, the sufficiency of the evidence to support his conviction, and the district court’s decision to impose a term of imprisonment.  OPINION HOLDS: We conclude the evidence of Moyle’s prior bad acts was properly admitted at trial.  His convictions against the same victim under similar circumstances were relevant to show his knowledge of the intimidating nature of the conduct charged in this case.  We find sufficient evidence to support each element of Moyle’s stalking conviction and detect no abuse of discretion in the district court’s sentence.  Accordingly, we affirm.

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Sac County, Christopher C. Polking, Judge.  AFFIRMED.  Considered without oral argument by Greer, P.J., Badding, J., and Carr, S.J.  Opinion by Carr, S.J.  (11 pages)

            Loren Wilson appeals from his conviction and sentence for second-degree sexual abuse and lascivious acts with a child.  Wilson argues the district court erred in not reopening the record to allow him to testify and in denying him a new trial and that there is insufficient evidence to convict him of the charged crimes.  OPINION HOLDS: Because all the Teeters factors weigh against granting Wilson’s request to reopen the record and Wilson received a fair and impartial trial, the district court did not abuse its discretion in denying Wilson’s motion for new trial or his request to reopen the record.  And because sufficient evidence supported his convictions, we affirm the district court in all respects.

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Sioux County, Roger L. Sailer, Judge.  AFFIRMED.  Considered without oral argument by Badding, P.J., and Buller and Langholz, JJ.  Opinion by Langholz, J.  (9 pages)

            Midwest Builders’ Casualty Mutual Company and Iowa Trenchless, L.C. appeal the district court’s summary-judgment ruling dismissing their negligence suit against RP Constructors, LLC because they failed to comply with the requirements of Iowa Code section 85.22(2) (2022) to obtain the right of subrogation to maintain the suit.  OPINION HOLDS: Under nearly a century of supreme court precedent interpreting section 85.22(2) and its predecessors, workers’ compensation subrogation rights do not attach unless an employee is provided ninety days’ written notice.  That did not happen here.  Midwest Builders and Iowa Trenchless have failed to distinguish those controlling cases.  And we are not at liberty to overrule them.  So we affirm the district court’s grant of summary judgment to RP Constructors.

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Decatur County, Terry Rickers, Judge.  REVERSED AND REMANDED.  Considered without oral argument by Schumacher, P.J., and Buller and Langholz, JJ.  Opinion by Langholz, J.  Dissent by Buller, J.  (15 pages)

            Julian Toney appeals the district court’s judgment finding that he slandered the title of Arthur and Hazel Parker and awarding punitive damages for this slander of title and a related trespass claim.  OPINION HOLDS: We agree that the slander-of-title claim fails.  Because Toney’s previous unaccepted offer to buy the land cannot be used as the salable value of the land and the Parkers offered no other evidence of that value, the Parkers failed to prove that they suffered special damages—a necessary element of slander of title.  And because the court granted punitive damages for both slander of title and trespass, we vacate that award and remand for the district court to decide the appropriate award for only the trespass claim.  DISSENT ASSERTS: Because Toney was familiar with the land, made a written offer, and was fully available for examination at trial, I dissent from the majority’s holding that the district court erred when calculating special damages.

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Polk County, Lawrence P. McClellan, Judge.  AFFIRMED.  Considered without oral argument by Schumacher, P.J., and Buller and Sandy, JJ.  Opinion by Schumacher, P.J.  (12 pages)

            Following a jury trial, Salifou Sahr appeals his convictions.  Sahr challenges the admission of multiple pieces of evidence and argues the State failed to present sufficient evidence to support his convictions.  OPINION HOLDS: Because the district court did not abuse its discretion in admitting the disputed evidence and the State presented sufficient evidence to support Sahr’s convictions, we affirm.

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Scott County, John Telleen, Judge.  AFFIRMED.  Considered without oral argument by Schumacher, P.J., Ahlers, J., and Carr, S.J.  Telleen, S.J., takes no part.  Opinion by Carr, S.J.  (9 pages)

            Aaron Lee Stinde appeals from the district court’s denial of his application for postconviction relief (PCR), arguing his trial counsel was ineffective in the following ways: (1) failing “to ensure that the plea offer was properly communicated to [Stinde] and a recommendation made,” (2) permitting Stinde “to waive his right to trial by jury,” and (3) failing “to obtain and use the mental health and psychological records of the victim.”  OPINION HOLDS: Finding Stinde suffered no ineffective assistance of counsel, we affirm the district court’s dismissal of his PCR application. 

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Wright County, Blake H. Norman, Judge.  AFFIRMED.  Considered without oral argument by Schumacher, P.J., and Badding and Chicchelly, JJ.  Opinion by Badding, J.  (15 pages)

            Jerod Miller appeals the denial of his application for postconviction relief, claiming the district court erred in finding that it was not bound by unanswered requests for admissions under Iowa Rule of Civil Procedure 1.510(2) and dismissing his claims for prosecutorial misconduct and ineffective assistance of counsel.  OPINION HOLDS: We affirm the district court’s denial of Miller’s postconviction relief application.  The court correctly determined that it was not bound by the State’s defaulted admissions that defense counsel was ineffective.  We also agree with the court that Miller failed to prove his prosecutorial misconduct and ineffective-assistance claims. 

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Scott County, Cheryl Traum, Judge.  AFFIRMED.  Considered without oral argument by Greer, P.J., and Buller and Langholz, JJ.  Opinion by Langholz, J. (7 pages)

            Ryan Pearson appeals his convictions after a conditional guilty plea, challenging the district court’s denial of his motion to suppress.  Pearson argues that he was unconstitutionally seized when an officer blocked in his vehicle early one morning after discovering Pearson passed out behind the wheel of his unlocked idling truck, with a handgun on the passenger seat, parked in a casino parking garage.  OPINION HOLDS: We agree with the district court that the warrantless seizure was constitutional under the community-caretaking exception. 

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Polk County, Lawrence P. McLellan, Judge.  AFFIRMED.  Considered without oral argument by Schumacher, P.J., and Buller and Sandy, JJ.  Opinion by Schumacher, P.J.  (3 pages)

            Preston Walls appeals the denial of his motion for new trial following his conviction for assault causing serious injury, basing his challenge on use of an allegedly defective jury instruction.  OPINION HOLDS: Because Walls failed to preserve error on the sole issue he raises on appeal, we affirm. 

            Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Polk County, Paul D. Scott, Judge.  AFFIRMED.  Heard at oral argument by Tabor, C.J., and Ahlers and Langholz, JJ.  Opinion by Tabor, C.J. (8 pages)

            A jury convicted Surfun Boens of first-degree murder.  Boens appeals, contending that the court abused its discretion in granting the State’s motion to strike a prospective juror for cause.  And he urges that the undeserved strike prejudiced him because the State gained disproportionate power to shape the jury’s composition—effectively exercising an extra peremptory challenge.  He asks that we reverse his conviction and remand for a new trial.  OPINION HOLDS: On this record, Boens has not established reversible error.  So, we affirm.