State of Iowa v. Leonard Terrell Haynes

CourtCourt of Appeals of Iowa
DecidedDecember 24, 2014
Docket13-1057
StatusPublished

This text of State of Iowa v. Leonard Terrell Haynes (State of Iowa v. Leonard Terrell Haynes) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Iowa primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State of Iowa v. Leonard Terrell Haynes, (iowactapp 2014).

Opinion

IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF IOWA

No. 13-1057 Filed December 24, 2014

STATE OF IOWA, Plaintiff-Appellee,

vs.

LEONARD TERRELL HAYNES, Defendant-Appellant. ________________________________________________________________

Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Black Hawk County, David F.

Staudt (pre-plea) and George L. Stigler (pre-plea, plea, and sentencing), Judges.

Leonard Haynes appeals from the judgment and sentence entered

following his guilty plea to possession of a controlled substance, third offense,

and operating while intoxicated. AFFIRMED.

Tod J. Beavers of Law Offices of Tod J. Beavers, P.C., Des Moines, for

appellant.

Thomas J. Miller, Attorney General, Kyle Hanson, Assistant Attorney

General, Thomas J. Ferguson, County Attorney, and Brian Williams, Jeremy

Westendorf, Brad Walz, and Shana Schwake, Assistant County Attorneys, for

appellee.

Heard by Danilson, C.J., and Doyle and Tabor, JJ. 2

PER CURIAM.

Leonard Haynes appeals from the judgment and sentence entered

following his guilty plea to possession of a controlled substance, third offense,

and operating while intoxicated. We affirm.

I. Background Facts and Proceedings

In October 2011, police observed Haynes driving a vehicle with expired

registration. Police activated emergency lights to conduct a traffic stop, and

Haynes “slow rolled” for thirty seconds or so before coming to a stop as if he was

attempting to conceal contraband. Police approached Haynes’s vehicle and

noticed Haynes’s mouth was filled with flakes of marijuana, and Haynes was

“continuously swiping his tongue all around his mouth trying to clean out the

marijuana.” When he spoke, police smelled “a very strong odor of fresh

marijuana.” When asked how much marijuana he had eaten, Haynes first

replied, “[N]ot that much,” but then said he had not eaten any marijuana. Haynes

stated he had smoked marijuana approximately twenty minutes earlier so “that’s

what it must be from.”

Haynes had slurred speech and bloodshot, watery eyes. Police

performed field sobriety tests and invoked the implied consent procedure.

Haynes refused to submit a sample for chemical testing.

Haynes was charged with possession of a controlled substance, third

offense, in violation of Iowa Code section 124.401(5) (2011), and operating while

intoxicated, in violation of section 321J.2. Haynes retained attorney Raphael

Scheetz and pled not guilty. 3

In July 2012, the court allowed attorney Scheetz to withdraw and

appointed the public defender. Due to the public defender’s “heavy overload of

cases,” the district court appointed attorney Ryan Tang. In November 2012, the

court allowed attorney Tang to withdraw and reappointed the public defender.1

Public Defender Dustin Lies was appointed to represent Haynes.

Meanwhile, Haynes decided he wanted to plead guilty. A guilty-plea

hearing was held on February 28, 2013, but aborted after the district court noted,

“the court has determined the defendant’s heart is not in taking his plea at this

time.” The court set Haynes’s case for a jury trial on March 19, with a final

pretrial conference set for March 15.

On March 15, Haynes voiced complaints about attorney Lies’s

representation and requested a new attorney. The court denied Haynes’s

request for a new attorney and concluded the hearing, stating Haynes’s trial

would start the following week. Less than two hours later, Haynes reappeared

before the court with attorney Lies and entered a plea of guilty. Following the

hearing, the court accepted Haynes’s plea and set a sentencing hearing for June

3.

On March 21, Haynes filed a handwritten document raising concerns he

had with the plea proceedings. On March 27, the court entered an order treating

Haynes’s filing as a motion in arrest of judgment and setting it for hearing on

June 3.

1 Meanwhile, a warrant had been issued for Haynes’s arrest following his failure to appear; as a condition of the warrant being removed, Haynes agreed to waive his right to have a trial within one year of his arraignment. 4

At the hearing on June 3, the court brought up Haynes’s motion in arrest

of judgment and received Haynes’s argument on the motion. Without formally

discussing its ruling, the court implicitly denied the motion by proceeding to the

sentencing portion of the hearing. Following the hearing, the court entered an

order sentencing Haynes to a suspended prison term for the possession charge

and thirty days in jail for the operating-while-intoxicated charge. Haynes

subsequently filed a motion to reconsider, and the court reduced the thirty-day

sentence to a ten-day sentence.

Haynes appeals.

II. Motion in Arrest of Judgment

Haynes raises several issues concerning the denial of his motion in arrest

of judgment. We turn first to his claim that “error occurred when [his] pro se

motion in arrest of judgment was not heard and ruled on within the mandatory

thirty days of the filing of the motion.”

“A motion in arrest of judgment shall be heard and determined by the court

within 30 days from the date it is filed, except upon good cause entered in the

record.” Iowa R. Crim. P. 2.24(3)(f). “The time provision of the rule is intended to

expedite disposition of criminal cases.” State v. Hilleshiem, 305 N.W.2d 710, 718

(Iowa 1981) (discussing rule 2.24(3)(f), formerly numbered as rule 23(3)(f)).

“[T]he rule plainly implements interests of the accused and the public in having

prosecutions expeditiously concluded, [h]owever, unlike rule [2.33 (speedy trial)],

no express sanction is provided for a violation.” Id. (internal citation omitted); see

Iowa R. Crim. P. 2.33(2)(b) (“If a defendant indicted for a public offense has not

waived the defendant’s right to a speedy trial the defendant must be brought to 5

trial within 90 days after indictment is found or the court must order the

indictment to be dismissed unless good cause to the contrary be shown.”).

Here, on March 21, 2013, six days after Haynes entered his guilty plea, he

filed a handwritten document, stating:

On day approx.: 3-1-13 I entered your court complaining about my position with my case. Very uncomfortable with my Public Defender (Dustin Lies). I was refused to drop Mr. Dustin Lies at pretrial 3-15-13 after he continued to lye [sic] about my offer from the State (Shana). Judge Stigler was present that day. I don’t feel Judge was fair to me and I like for the minutes of these court appearances to be pulled up for investigation, because Mr. Dustin Lies will be caught lying to me and you. Mrs. Shana for the State offered me less time than my public defender asked for in court on 3-15-13. Dustin Lies (Public Defender) never looked out for my best interest nor spoke in my favor. I’m a student at Hawkeye College, a single parent (five year old daughter) and work everyday for Arline Properties (Boss Roger). Dustin Lies refused to speak for his client in any good way. P.S. May I have a response. I like to be heard. Leonard Haynes.

On March 27, the court entered an order indicating it was treating Haynes’s filing

as a motion in arrest of judgment and setting it for hearing on June 3. The matter

was heard and implicitly denied on June 3, forty-four days after expiration of the

thirty days provided for in rule 2.24(3)(f).

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