State of Iowa
v.
Jonathan Levi Hart
Appellee
State of Iowa
Appellant
Jonathan Levi Hart
Attorney for the Appellee
Linda J. Hines, Assistant Attorney General, and Lisa Manoogian, Law Student Intern, for appellee
Attorney for the Appellant
Arielle M. Lipman
Court of Appeals
Court of Appeals Opinion
Opinion Number:
Date Published:
Summary
Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Wayne County, Patrick W. Greenwood, Judge. REVERSED AND REMANDED. Heard by Bower, C.J., and Doyle and Ahlers, JJ. Opinion by Ahlers, J. (10 pages)
Jonathan Hart appeals his convictions of eluding pursuing law enforcement and criminal mischief. He argues his counsel was ineffective for failing to object when the State called him as a rebuttal witness and the district court improperly admitted evidence of text messages and telephone calls. OPINION HOLDS: Seeing no reasonable trial strategy for defense counsel allowing the State to call Hart as a witness in violation of the rules of criminal procedure, we find Hart’s counsel breached an essential duty. Because Hart’s rebuttal testimony strengthened a key link in the State’s chain of circumstantial evidence, we also find prejudice resulted from counsel’s breach of duty. Hart is entitled to a new trial as a result. We do not decide the admission-of-evidence issue.
