State of Iowa v. Aaron Dion Michael Hanson Gales, Jr. ( 2023 )

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.