State v. Petrie, 91-05
| Decision Date | 24 December 1991 |
| Docket Number | No. 91-05,91-05 |
| Citation | 478 N.W.2d 620 |
| Parties | STATE of Iowa, Appellee, v. Clarence Raymond PETRIE, Appellant. |
| Court | Iowa Supreme Court |
Linda Del Gallo, State Appellate Defender, and Brian K. Sissel, Asst. State Appellate Defender, for appellant.
Bonnie J. Campbell, Atty. Gen., Thomas G. Fisher, Jr., Asst. Atty. Gen., Diann Wilder-Tomlinson, County Atty., and Peter J. Grady, Asst. County Atty., for appellee.
Considered by McGIVERIN, C.J., and HARRIS, CARTER, NEUMAN, and ANDREASEN, JJ.
The defendant appeals from the district court's restitution order requiring the defendant to pay attorney fees and court costs after he was convicted pursuant to a guilty plea of driving while barred, an aggravated misdemeanor in violation of Iowa Code section 321.561 (1989). The defendant claims that the district court erred in directing restitution for the entire amount of court costs and attorney fees under Iowa Code section 910.2 (1989). We reverse and remand for further proceedings.
A state trooper stopped the vehicle the defendant was driving for failure to have a front license plate. A license check showed the defendant's driver's license had been suspended. The defendant was then arrested for driving while barred, and his car was impounded. An inventory search revealed marijuana inside the car. The police also found marijuana beside the car.
The defendant was charged by trial information in three separate counts with possession of a controlled substance with the intent to deliver in violation of Iowa Code section 204.401(1)(d) (1989), with being an habitual offender in violation of Iowa Code section 902.8 (1989) and with driving while barred in violation of Iowa Code section 321.561 (1989).
The defendant moved to suppress the evidence seized in part on the basis of an unlawful inventory search. In a ruling on the suppression issues, the district court determined that the inventory search was unlawful and that the evidence seized from inside the vehicle should be suppressed. The district court ruled against the defendant on the other suppression issues.
Subsequently, the defendant and the State entered into a plea agreement which included the State's dismissal of the charge of possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver and the habitual offender count in exchange for the defendant's guilty plea on the driving while barred charge. The plea agreement made no provision for the payment of court costs and attorney fees. The district court accepted the resulting guilty plea and dismissed the other charges.
The district court sentenced the defendant to a term of imprisonment not to exceed two years and taxed the costs and court appointed attorney fees against the defendant. In a supplemental restitution order, the district court directed the defendant to pay $260.10 in court costs and $3018.42 in attorney fees, the entire amounts for the case.
The defendant filed a motion for hearing regarding the restitution order. The defendant claimed that he should not be required under Iowa Code section 910.2 to pay the entire amount of attorney fees and court costs for the case because he pleaded guilty only to one count of the trial information and the other two counts were dismissed. In its order ruling on the motion, the district court rejected the defendant's statutory claim for a reduction in the restitution but reduced the amount of attorney fees to be paid to $3000. The court concluded that the only condition in section 910.2 which applied to court-appointed attorney fees and court costs was a requirement for a guilty plea in the case and that there was no requirement to examine each count in the case. The district court stated that such treatment was similar to that received by a nonindigent defendant who paid the fees for privately retained counsel regardless of the result. The court stressed that this case did not involve a situation where the dismissed charge was frivolous.
Iowa Code section 910.2 provides, in part:
In all criminal cases except simple misdemeanors under chapter 321, in which there is a plea of guilty, verdict of guilty, or special verdict upon which a judgment of conviction is rendered, the sentencing court shall order that...
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State v. Brown
...Brown that an assessment of court costs for the dismissed simple misdemeanor charge would be an illegal sentence. See State v. Petrie , 478 N.W.2d 620, 622 (Iowa 1991) ("[T]he provisions of Iowa Code section 815.13 and section 910.2 clearly require, where the plea agreement is silent regard......
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State v. Krogmann
... ... order [on costs] for ... errors of law." State v. McMurry , 925 N.W.2d ... 592, 595 (Iowa 2019) (quoting State v. Petrie , 478 ... N.W.2d 620, 622 (Iowa 1991) (per curiam)). "[W]e seek to ... 'determine whether the court's findings lack ... substantial ... ...
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State v. Bonstetter
...statutory construction. We normally construe statutes on the basis of their ordinary and commonly understood meanings. State v. Petrie, 478 N.W.2d 620, 622 (Iowa 1991). We will not search for a different meaning when the statutory language is clear. Id. Our review is at law as to Bonstetter......
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...for resentencing.II. Standard of Review."We review the district court’s restitution order for errors of law." State v. Petrie , 478 N.W.2d 620, 622 (Iowa 1991) (per curiam); see also State v. Jose , 636 N.W.2d 38, 43 (Iowa 2001) . Through our review, we seek to "determine whether the court......