Bowman v. State
| Decision Date | 17 February 2006 |
| Docket Number | No. 03-1769.,03-1769. |
| Citation | 710 N.W.2d 200 |
| Parties | Craig BOWMAN, Appellant, v. STATE of Iowa, Appellee. |
| Court | Iowa Supreme Court |
Linda Del Gallo, State Appellate Defender, and David Arthur Adams, Assistant State Appellate Defender, for appellant.
Thomas J. Miller, Attorney General, Thomas S. Tauber, Assistant Attorney General, Fred H. McCaw, County Attorney, and Ralph Potter, Assistant County Attorney, for appellee.
In this case, we must decide if Craig Bowman received ineffective assistance of counsel during a prior criminal prosecution in which he was convicted of second-degree kidnapping, terrorism with intent, and assault while participating in a felony. After reviewing the record and considering the arguments presented, we conclude Bowman established that he received ineffective assistance of counsel based on his defense counsel's failure to object to the prosecutor's questions asking Bowman whether the State's witnesses fabricated their trial testimony. Accordingly, we vacate the decision of the court of appeals, reverse the convictions, and remand the case for retrial.
The convictions arise out of a series of events that began late in the evening of July 29, 1999 and ended in the early morning hours of July 30. At the time of the events leading to his convictions, Bowman was unemployed and on disability retirement. When Bowman was nineteen years old, a motorcycle accident caused his physicians to amputate a portion of his left leg. The doctors fitted him with a prosthesis for his left leg. During the next twenty years, he was on and off work, and in 1995 John Deere gave him a total disability retirement from the company due to the problems he experienced with his injury.
On the evening of July 29, Bowman and his then girlfriend, Theresa Carey, visited a bar in Dubuque and drank beer and mixed drinks. Later that evening, they drove to a bar called The Circle in East Dubuque, Illinois. Bowman and Carey had been arguing throughout the evening. They ordered two drinks at The Circle, but the evidence is inconclusive as to who drank them. Bowman acknowledged that at the time he and Carey left The Circle they were both intoxicated. As they were walking to their vehicle, Bowman asked Carey if she intended to repay Bowman for the money he loaned her to help pay for her divorce. At this point, Carey shoved Bowman's head against a wall causing a large cut on his head. Although Carey testified she did not remember doing this, Karla Schwaegler and Melissa Dakin, who witnessed the events outside The Circle, saw Carey push Bowman's head against the wall.
Schwaegler and Dakin then saw Bowman place his hands on Carey's throat in an effort to choke her. When that occurred, the two women intervened seeking to separate Bowman and Carey. At about the same time, two unidentified men arrived on the scene, threw Bowman to the ground, and beat him up causing abrasions on his body that were the sources of profuse bleeding. At the conclusion of the beating, Bowman testified one of the assailants told him that he had not seen the last of them.
At this point, Bowman asked Carey to leave with him. She refused. Carey asked Schwaegler and Dakin, whom she did not know, to retrieve her purse from Bowman's vehicle. Schwaegler complied, and Bowman drove away. Carey, Schwaegler, and Dakin went back into The Circle and ordered drinks. Schwaegler admitted to having about six drinks that evening. She acknowledged and Dakin confirmed she had a buzz.
After awhile, Todd Williams, an acquaintance of Dakin, joined them at their table. Williams worked that morning until 2:00 a.m. He arrived at The Circle about 2:30 a.m. He admitted to having three to four drinks at The Circle. Williams offered to drive Schwaegler, Dakin, and Carey back to Dubuque to retrieve Carey's automobile parked in front of Bowman's residence. The plan was to have Carey and Dakin wait at a Kmart store parking lot while Williams and Schwaegler retrieved the car and brought it to the Kmart.
In the meantime, Bowman returned home to tend to his injuries. When he arrived at his house, he retrieved two handguns from the basement thinking the two assailants from East Dubuque would come to his house and make good on their threat. Bowman had been bleeding so profusely that blood saturated his clothes and there were bloodstains throughout his house. Around 3:40 a.m., Bowman saw somebody lurking around his house. Williams admits he was in the neighborhood at that time with Schwaegler. Bowman thought the person he saw was one of the assailants from East Dubuque. He grabbed a gun and started to the door. At this point, he heard someone trying to start Carey's vehicle. Bowman was able to see Carey was not the driver, and he feared someone was trying to steal her car. From this point on, the evidence is in dispute.
Bowman testified upon seeing someone in Carey's car, he fired a shot in the air. He then approached the vehicle with the gun at his side and told the driver, Schwaegler, that two people just assaulted him in East Dubuque. He also told her he thought someone was there to assault him again, and then asked her to come inside while he called the police. He stated she obliged and entered his house voluntarily. He testified while in the house they drank beer together, smoked cigarettes, and talked about what happened in East Dubuque. Bowman testified their conversation convinced him Schwaegler was not involved in the East Dubuque assault. He further testified that the telephone rang and he left the room to get a cordless phone. Upon returning to the room, Schwaegler grabbed the phone and answered it. At this point, Bowman saw the police were outside of his house. He proceeded to exit the house with his gun in his hand. He returned to the house, put his gun down, and re-exited the house. The police tackled him as he exited the second time. As the police tackled him, he told the officers he was just trying to defend himself.
Schwaegler testified when she and Williams arrived at Bowman's house, Williams stayed in the background of a neighbor's yard while she entered Carey's automobile and started the engine. At this point, both Schwaegler and Williams heard a gunshot and soon observed Bowman standing nearby pointing a gun at Carey's car. Williams retreated to a Motel 6 and caused the attendant there to call the police. Bowman, who was still bleeding profusely, approached the vehicle and questioned Schwaegler concerning Carey's whereabouts. She testified Bowman threatened to shoot her if she did not accompany him into his house. Schwaegler entered Bowman's house and, at his direction, sat on a stool in the kitchen.
Schwaegler further testified Bowman continued to question her concerning Carey's whereabouts and he accused her of somehow being involved with the two unidentified men who had roughed him up outside The Circle. Schwaegler testified that Bowman kept his gun pointed at her and threatened to kill her several times while she was in his kitchen. Schwaegler contradicted this statement later in her testimony when she admitted Bowman left the room for twenty to thirty seconds to get the phone when the police called. Based on the size and layout of the house, twenty to thirty seconds would have given her ample time to walk out the door.
When police officer Eric Schneider arrived at the scene, he observed Bowman's front door was open. He testified he saw Bowman walk by the front door, but did not observe Bowman with a gun in his possession. The officers confirmed Bowman first exited the house with the gun in his possession. After the police told him to put the gun down, Bowman walked back in the house, put the gun on the counter, and immediately exited the house without using Schwaegler as a hostage or human shield. The officers also confirmed Bowman's state of mind when they testified Bowman stated he was only trying to defend himself as they were tackling him to place him in handcuffs.
After the police subdued Bowman, Schneider interviewed Schwaegler and Williams. As to Schwaegler's intoxication, Schneider testified he believed she was intoxicated, but on further questioning, he stated she might also have been upset because she was crying. Regarding Williams' intoxication, Schneider testified he did not have an opportunity to assess Williams' intoxication when he interviewed him. He further testified:
I really didn't spend a lot of time with him. I've known Mr. Williams slightly to see and so on. I mean, he's always struck me as being, I don't know, oafish maybe so I wasn't really looking for a lot of intelligence from him on this particular morning.
The jury convicted Bowman of second-degree kidnapping, terrorism with intent, and assault while participating in a felony. On direct appeal, our court of appeals affirmed the convictions. Bowman then filed an application for postconviction relief. The district court denied the application. Bowman appealed the denial. The court of appeals affirmed the denial of his application. We granted Bowman's application for further review.
Although Bowman raised numerous issues in his appeal from the district court's postconviction ruling, this appeal may be resolved on the basis of Bowman's claim that he received ineffective assistance of trial counsel based on the failure of his defense counsel to object to the prosecutor's questions asking Bowman whether the State's witnesses fabricated their testimony at trial.
A claim of ineffective assistance of counsel requires a de novo review because the claim is derived from the Sixth Amendment of the United States Constitution. State v. Wills, 696 N.W.2d 20, 22 (Iowa 2005). In order to succeed on a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel, a defendant must prove (1) counsel failed to perform an essential duty and (2) prejudice resulted. State v. Artzer, ...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
State v. Clay
...unprofessional errors, the result of the proceeding would have been different.’ ” Maxwell, 743 N.W.2d at 196 (quoting Bowman v. State, 710 N.W.2d 200, 203 (Iowa 2006)). Specifically, we recognize: [T]he prejudice prong of the Strickland test does not mean a defendant must establish that cou......
-
Dempsey v. State
...that, but for the counsel's unprofessional errors, the result of the proceeding would have been different.’ ” Bowman v. State, 710 N.W.2d 200, 203 (Iowa 2006) (quoting State v. Hopkins, 576 N.W.2d 374, 378 (Iowa 1998) ). A claimant must prove prejudice by a preponderance of the evidence. Cl......
-
State v. Tompkins
...that, but for the counsel's unprofessional errors, the result of the proceeding would have been different.’ ” Bowman v. State, 710 N.W.2d 200, 203 (Iowa 2006) (quoting State v. Hopkins, 576 N.W.2d 374, 378 (Iowa 1998) ). The claimant must prove prejudice by a preponderance of the evidence. ......
-
State v. Albright
...different, but only that the probability of a different result is "sufficient to undermine confidence in the outcome." Bowman v. State , 710 N.W.2d 200, 206 (Iowa 2006) (quoting State v. Graves , 668 N.W.2d 860, 882 (Iowa 2003) ). To make this determination, we consider what factual finding......