State of Iowa v. Aaron Dion Michael Hanson Gales, Jr.

• Court: Court of Appeals of Iowa
• Decided: May 10, 2023
• Docket: 22-0795
• Status: Published

Opinion

IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF IOWA

No. 22-0795 Filed May 10, 2023

STATE OF IOWA, Plaintiff-Appellee,

vs.

AARON DION MICHAEL HANSON GALES, JR., Defendant-Appellant. ________________________________________________________________

Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Scott County, Henry W. Latham II,

Judge.

The defendant challenges his sentence, arguing the district court abused

its discretion in imposing consecutive terms of incarceration. AFFIRMED.

Jessica A. Millage of Flanagan Law Group, PLLC, Des Moines, for

appellant.

Brenna Bird, Attorney General, and Timothy M. Hau, Assistant Attorney

General, for appellee.

Considered by Bower, C.J., and Tabor and Greer, JJ. 2

GREER, Judge.

In FECR420322, Aaron Hanson Gales Jr. pled guilty to two counts of

assault on persons in certain occupations causing bodily injury. See Iowa Code

§ 708.3A(3) (2022). As part of a plea agreement, the State agreed to dismiss the

other counts in the case against Hanson Gales and both parties were free to make

any sentencing recommendations to the court. The court accepted Hanson

Gales’s written guilty pleas, and an omnibus sentencing hearing for FECR420322

and three other cases was scheduled for a later date.

At the sentencing hearing, Hanson Gales asked the court to run the two-

year terms for each assault conviction concurrently to each other (for a total of two

years) and consecutive to the five-year terms he anticipated receiving in his three

other cases, for a total of seven years. Instead, the court ordered Hanson Gales

to serve the two-year terms consecutive to one another (for a total of four years)

and consecutive to his sentences in FECR416645,1 FECR408149,2 and

FECR419158.3

Hanson Gales appeals. He raises the same issues here as he did in State

v. Hanson Gales, No. 22-0794, 2023 WL _______ (Iowa Ct. App. May 10, 2023),

a companion case involving the same multi-case sentencing hearing, which we

1 In FECR416645, Hanson Gales pled guilty to escaping from custody after being convicted of a felony, which is a class “D” felony. He was sentenced to a term of incarceration not to exceed five years. 2 After stipulating to violating the terms of his probation in FECR408149, the district

court revoked Hanson Gales’s deferred judgment for second-degree theft and imposed the original five-year sentence. 3 A jury convicted Hanson Gales of dominion and control of a firearm by a felon

and possessing a short-barrel rifle or shotgun in FECR419158; the court sentenced him to five years of incarceration for each charge and ordered them to be served concurrently (for a total of five years). 3

also decide today. For the reasons provided in the companion case, we affirm

Hanson Gales’s sentences without further opinion. See Iowa Ct. R. 21.26(1)(a),

(e).

AFFIRMED.