State of Iowa v. Alyssa Brittany Martin ( 2023 )

IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF IOWA
No. 22-0021
Filed January 25, 2023
STATE OF IOWA,
Plaintiff-Appellee,
vs.
ALYSSA BRITTANY MARTIN,
Defendant-Appellant.
________________________________________________________________
Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Polk County, Joseph W. Seidlin,
Judge.
Alyssa Martin appeals her sentence. SENTENCE VACATED AND
REMANDED FOR RESENTENCING.
Nicholas A. Bailey of Bailey Law Firm, P.L.L.C., Altoona, for appellant.
Brenna Bird, Attorney General, and Nicholas E. Siefert, Assistant Attorney
General, for appellee.
Considered by Bower, C.J., and Greer and Badding, JJ.
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BOWER, Chief Judge.
Alyssa Martin appeals her sentence following guilty pleas to two counts of
neglect of a dependent person.1 Martin contends the district court should have
deferred judgment rather than suspending her sentence and placing her on
probation. We find the sentencing court considered unproven facts and therefore
vacate Martin’s sentence and remand for resentencing.
We review a sentence imposed for correction of errors at law, and will not
reverse unless there is “an abuse of discretion or some defect in the sentencing
procedure.” Damme, 944 N.W.2d at 103 (citation omitted).
A sentencing court’s decision to impose a specific sentence
that falls within the statutory limits “is cloaked with a strong
presumption in its favor, and will only be overturned for an abuse of
discretion or the consideration of inappropriate matters.” Our task
on appeal is not to second-guess the sentencing court’s decision.
Rather, we must determine that its decision “was exercised on
grounds or for reasons that were clearly untenable or unreasonable.”
We afford sentencing judges a significant amount of latitude because
of the “discretionary nature of judging and the source of respect
afforded by the appellate process.”
Id. at 105–06 (citations omitted).
“[A] sentencing court may not rely upon additional, unproven, and
unprosecuted charges unless the defendant admits to the charges or there are
facts presented to show the defendant committed the offenses.” State v. Formaro,
638 N.W.2d 720, 725 (Iowa 2002). “This rule prohibits a sentencing court from
imposing ‘a severe sentence for a lower crime on the ground that the accused
1 Because Martin is challenging her sentence, she has good cause to appeal. See
State v. Damme, 944 N.W.2d 98,105 (Iowa 2020) (“We hold that good cause exists
to appeal from a conviction following a guilty plea when the defendant challenges
his or her sentence rather than the guilty plea.”).
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actually committed a higher crime . . . even if the prosecutor originally charged the
higher crime and reduced the charge.’” State v. Sailer, 587 N.W.2d 756, 762 (Iowa
1998) (citation omitted). The defendant must make an affirmative showing that the
district court relied upon improper evidence of unproven charges. Id. The court
may consider the presentence investigation report (PSI) to the extent not
challenged by the defendant. State v. Guise, 921 N.W.2d 26, 30 (Iowa 2018). We
will remand for resentencing if the court improperly considered unprosecuted and
unproven charges. Formaro, 638 N.W.2d at 725.
Martin asserts the district court did not have grounds to take judicial notice
of the minutes of testimony and impermissibly considered unproven conduct when
imposing sentence.2 According to Martin, the only facts the court could consider
when sentencing her were the statements from her guilty pleas:
I admit I did the following: I knowingly exposed [the children], to a
hazard or danger to which [they] could not reasonably be expected
to protect [themselves], specifically by allowing Phillip Harmison to
supervise [them] when Phillip had previously been founded on a
Child Abuse Assessment for abuse against one of my children. This
happened in Polk County, Iowa on or about June 2, 2021.
At sentencing, the court asked if Martin had any additions, deletions, or
corrections to the PSI; the only change she requested was an update to medical
and mental health diagnoses and appointments. In the section of the PSI for the
“Official Version” of what happened, the report stated, “The minutes of testimony
and trial information can be viewed in the court file.” It gave no further description
of the events giving rise to the offenses. The PSI also expressly referred to the
2 The State dismissed two counts of child endangerment as part of the plea
agreement.
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minutes of testimony for the “Victim’s Version” of events. Though Martin did not
object to the PSI reference to the minutes of testimony, she did not admit to the
“Victim’s Version” of the events.
The sentencing court can “only consider the facts contained in the minutes
of testimony that are admitted to or otherwise established as true.” State v.
Gonzalez, 582 N.W.2d 515, 517 (Iowa 1998) (citation omitted). “Where portions
of the minutes are not necessary to establish a factual basis for a plea, they are
deemed denied by the defendant and are otherwise unproved and a sentencing
court cannot consider or rely on them.” Id.At sentencing, the district court explained what it considered when deciding
whether to defer judgment.
The issues are whether—the issue is whether there should be
granted the opportunity to have this matter expunged ultimately, as
if it didn’t happen, or whether there should be a conviction for a
felony. One of those proposals provides potential to disrupt the
community. One of those certainly disrupts the life of Ms. Martin.
Ms. Martin is relatively young. She has no criminal history.
She has a high school education. She has been and is employed.
These are factors which weigh in her favor in granting a deferred
judgment, I think.
[Ms. Martin] was involved in a series of crimes here. This
wasn’t a single event. This was part of a lifestyle in how these
children were disciplined, how they were treated, and I’m disturbed
by the fact that Ms. Martin first tried hard to discredit her own children,
that she, as far as I can tell, still at the very least minimizes her
involvement. Her admissions were to being some sort of passive
observant or not even, that she negligently left these children alone
with her significant other, and that’s not the case or certainly not the
whole story by a long shot.
The court improperly refers to facts from the minutes of testimony beyond
those that were necessary to establish a factual basis for Martin’s guilty pleas to
neglect of a dependent person. We cannot speculate as to the weight the
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sentencing court gave the unproven charges, so Martin’s sentences must be
vacated and the case remanded for resentencing before another judge. See id.SENTENCE VACATED AND REMANDED FOR RESENTENCING.