State of Iowa v. Jeremy Scot Quillen ( 2022 )

IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF IOWA
No. 21-1360
Filed October 19, 2022
STATE OF IOWA,
Plaintiff-Appellee,
vs.
JEREMY SCOT QUILLEN,
Defendant-Appellant.
________________________________________________________________
Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Boone County, Kurt J. Stoebe,
Judge.
Jeremy Scot Quillen appeals his convictions and sentences for domestic
abuse assault, third or subsequent conviction, and domestic abuse assault causing
bodily injury. AFFIRMED.
Martha J. Lucey, State Appellate Defender, and Nan Jennisch, Assistant
Appellate Defender, for appellant.
Thomas J. Miller, Attorney General, and Thomas J. Ogden, Assistant
Attorney General, for appellee.
Considered by Bower, C.J., Tabor, J., and Carr, S.J.*
*Senior judge assigned by order pursuant to Iowa Code section 602.9206
(2022).
2
BOWER, Chief Judge.
On the evening of December 13, 2019, Jeremy Scot Quillen grabbed his
domestic partner and put her into a choke hold to keep her from leaving. She
suffered redness and bruising on each side of her neck. She again tried to escape
and Quillen forced her to the ground, putting his elbow into her back and injuring
her rib cage. Quillen ripped her clothing as she fled and she ran semi-clothed to
a neighbor’s house and asked the neighbor to call 911.
Quillen was charged with domestic abuse assault, third or subsequent
offense (count I), and domestic abuse assault with strangulation (count II). Quillen
appeals his convictions and sentences for domestic abuse assault, third or
subsequent conviction, a class ‘D’ felony, and domestic abuse assault causing
bodily injury, a serious misdemeanor.1 The district court sentenced Quillen to five
years’ imprisonment with a one-year minimum on Count I of the trial information,
domestic abuse assault, third or subsequent offense, and one year in prison on
Count II, domestic abuse assault causing bodily injury; the sentences to run
concurrently.
On appeal, Quillen argues the trial court erred in failing to merge the two
convictions and asserts sentence should have been imposed only on the domestic-
abuse-assault-causing-bodily-injury conviction. “We review an alleged failure to
merge convictions as required by statute for correction of errors at law.” State v.
Johnson, 950 N.W.2d 21, 23 (Iowa 2020).
1 On count II, the jury found Quillen guilty of a lesser-included offense of the
charged offense; the greater offense would have been a class ‘D’ felony.
3
“‘The Double Jeopardy Clause prohibits multiple punishments for the same
offense’ and thereby ‘prevents a court from imposing a greater punishment than
the legislature intended.’” Id. at 24 (citation omitted). The State charged and
proved two separate offenses. And Quillen stipulated to two prior domestic
assaults convictions.
Iowa’s merger statute states: “No person shall be convicted of a public
offense which is necessarily included in another public offense of which the person
is convicted.” Iowa Code § 701.9 (2019). Offenses do not merge when merger
would nullify specific statutory enhancements applicable to the merged offense.
Johnson, 950 N.W.2d at 25–26; see also State v. Goodson, 958 N.W.2d 791, 806
(Iowa 2021) (stating “merger does not occur when to do so would defeat the
legislative policy behind a statutory enhancement of sentencing”). Because
Quillen’s merger argument would defeat the legislative policy behind statutory
enhancement for third-or-subsequent-offense domestic abuse assault, we find no
error. We affirm.
AFFIRMED.