State v. Rimmer
| Citation | 877 N.W.2d 652 |
| Decision Date | 25 March 2016 |
| Docket Number | No. 13–1397.,13–1397. |
| Parties | STATE of Iowa, Appellant, v. Demetrius S. RIMMER, Appellee. State of Iowa, Appellant, v. Rona Murphy, Appellee. State of Iowa, Appellant, v. Melonicka Thomas, Appellee. |
| Court | United States State Supreme Court of Iowa |
Thomas J. Miller, Attorney General, Alexandra Link, Assistant Attorney General, Michael J. Walton, County Attorney, and Kelly Cunningham, Assistant County Attorney, for appellant.
Mark C. Smith, State Appellate Defender, and Vidhya K. Reddy, Assistant Appellate Defender, for appellee Demetrius S. Rimmer.
Thomas J. O'Flaherty of O'Flaherty Law Firm, Bettendorf, for appellee Rona Murphy.
Jack E. Dusthimer, Davenport, for appellee Melonicka Thomas.
, Justice.
Can criminal defendants avoid prosecution in Iowa if they were unaware that their scheme was being perpetrated, in part, on persons located in Iowa? This appeal presents questions of first impression regarding the State of Iowa's territorial jurisdiction to prosecute multistate insurance fraud. The defendants, who live in Wisconsin and Illinois and had never set foot in Iowa before their extradition here, allegedly staged an auto accident in Chicago to collect on false insurance claims. The victim was a Wisconsin insurance company that paid claims through its Wisconsin bank account. The accident was investigated by two employees of the insurer's Davenport, Iowa branch office, who spoke with the defendants by phone and interviewed one of them in Wisconsin. The defendants allegedly made false statements during the phone calls but were unaware that the investigators were in Iowa during that time. The defendants argue they are not subject to prosecution here. The district court granted the defendants' motion to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction, and the State appealed. We transferred the case to the court of appeals, which reversed and reinstated the criminal charges. We granted the defendants' applications for further review.
For the reasons explained below, we conclude the phone calls between the defendants located in Wisconsin and Illinois and the victim's investigators in Davenport induced payments on false insurance claims, a detrimental effect in Iowa, which thereby constituted an element of four out of the five crimes charged. We hold that the defendants' challenges to territorial jurisdiction fail as to those four crimes and this prosecution may proceed on those charges under the criminal jurisdiction statute, Iowa Code section 803.1 (2011)
. We affirm the dismissal of a fifth charge because the State fails to show any defendant submitted a false written statement or certificate in Iowa. Accordingly, we vacate the decision of the court of appeals, affirm the district court's dismissal of that charge, and reverse the decision of the district court that dismissed the other criminal charges. We remand these cases to allow the criminal prosecution to proceed on the reinstated charges.
The trial information and minutes of testimony allege these facts, which we accept as true for purposes of this appeal.1 The defendants, Demetrius Rimmer, Rona Murphy, and Melonicka Thomas, participated in an insurance fraud ring that staged car accidents in Chicago, Illinois. Murphy and Thomas are Illinois residents, and their vehicles were registered in Illinois. Rimmer is a Milwaukee, Wisconsin resident, and his car was registered in Wisconsin. On November 23, 2011, Rimmer purchased an insurance policy for his Dodge Charger from Viking Insurance Company of Wisconsin (Viking Insurance). On the night of January 6, 2012, Rimmer, Murphy, and Thomas staged a three-car accident at an intersection in Chicago. Rimmer claimed that he approached a stoplight too fast and his Charger rear-ended Murphy's Chevy Trailblazer, causing it to strike Thomas's BMW X5 as she drove through the intersection. Rimmer and Murphy went to a Chicago police station to report the accident, but no officers responded at the scene.
Rimmer called the 1–800 number on the back of his insurance card. The call was answered by an insurance company employee in Kentucky.2 Rimmer admitted the accident was his fault. He was told that a regional claims representative would contact him. Rimmer's claim was assigned to the Davenport office of Sentry Insurance Company (Sentry), the parent corporation of Viking Insurance. Sentry and Viking Insurance are incorporated and headquartered in Wisconsin. Sentry's claim adjuster, Greg Perren, called each driver from his Davenport office. Perren interviewed each driver by phone to inquire how the accident occurred and to obtain information about each vehicle and claimant. All three drivers claimed their vehicles were damaged in the accident. Thomas also claimed that she had a whiplash injury
. Perren requested inspections of each vehicle. A Sentry adjuster from its Wisconsin office inspected and photographed each vehicle's damage and estimated the repair costs. The adjuster inspected Murphy's and Thomas's vehicles in Illinois and Rimmer's in Wisconsin.
As Perren questioned each driver by phone, he found that their stories diverged. For example, Thomas claimed her BMW was hit while she was traveling eastbound through the intersection. However, Rimmer and Murphy stated the Trailblazer hit Thomas's BMW as it traveled westbound. Murphy later changed her story to say she hit the BMW head-on. Murphy also claimed she had a passenger with her, but the other drivers said Murphy was alone.
Perren also concluded the photographs contradicted their statements. Murphy and Thomas claimed Rimmer's Charger was drivable with minor damage. By contrast, Rimmer reported his car was towed from the scene to Milwaukee with extensive front-end damage. Yet Murphy's Trailblazer had only minor rear-end damage. Thomas's BMW had a cracked front bumper but no damage to either side despite the conflicting statements it had been struck broadside. And Thomas initially told Perren that she drove away from the scene but later claimed her car had been towed to Crestwood, Illinois. Murphy, however, did not remember any of the vehicles being towed.
Perren authorized $500 to settle Thomas's personal injury claim. Viking Insurance's Wisconsin bank mailed Thomas a check on January 18. Perren authorized $6805 for damage to Rimmer's Charger and $325 for towing reimbursement. The same Wisconsin bank mailed the checks to Rimmer at his Wisconsin address on January 20. Perren authorized $3500 for Murphy's vehicle damage.3
On January 19, the claim was randomly reviewed for fraud, and the reviewer referred the claim to Greg Wolf, who worked in Sentry's Davenport office. On January 31, Wolf reviewed the paper file and concluded the case warranted further investigation. Wolf conducted recorded telephone interviews of each driver and ran searches on each vehicle's history.4 He discovered the drivers had claimed the same damage with other insurance companies. He followed up by speaking to the other insurance company representatives and obtaining documentation regarding those claims.
Wolf recorded his phone calls with each driver between February 2 and February 16. Wolf asked how the accident occurred and requested information about the damage to each vehicle. The drivers' answers remained inconsistent, and each driver claimed to not know the other drivers. Wolf never mentioned Iowa in any of these recorded phone calls. He gave Murphy a phone number with a 563 area code, but there is no information that Murphy ever called that number or knew that area code is for part of eastern Iowa. Rimmer left Wolf a voicemail containing fraudulent statements. It is unclear what number Rimmer called to reach the voicemail.
Wolf's investigation uncovered that the same vehicular damages claimed in this accident also had been claimed in other accidents reported under policies with three other insurance companies—Farmers Insurance, Geico Insurance, and American Family Insurance. Wolf discovered that Thomas's BMW had the same mileage in the Farmers Insurance claim for an alleged accident on December 16, 2011, and the Sentry claim for the accident on January 6, 2012. Wolf learned that American Family Insurance had paid for damages in an accident between Murphy's Trailblazer and Thomas's BMW on October 12, 2011. Wolf obtained photographs of the Trailblazer from Geico Insurance and Farmers Insurance showing identical damage as reported in the Sentry claim, even though these other insurance claims were made months earlier. Further, Murphy's car was registered under two names, and Rimmer's car was insured by two insurance companies under different Illinois license plate numbers. Wolf estimated the total amount paid for the fraudulent claims exceeded $50,000.
Wolf tried to meet personally with each defendant. Wolf met Rimmer in Wisconsin and discussed the accident. Rimmer repeated his version of the accident and denied committing any crime. Wolf traveled to Illinois in an attempt to meet with Thomas and Murphy there, but he was unsuccessful.
On April 30, Wolf reported the insurance fraud to Detective Jason Gillaspie at the Davenport Police Department. Wolf told Gillaspie that Sentry had paid $7392 for vehicle damage5 and $325 in towing reimbursement. On July 18, Detective Gillaspie obtained a warrant for Rimmer's arrest.6 Detective Gillaspie filed a criminal complaint on July 27 and arrest warrants were issued for Thomas and Murphy that day. All three were arrested in their home states and extradited to Iowa.7 The Scott County attorney filed a trial information on May 2, 2013, charging each defendant with ongoing criminal conduct in violation of Iowa Code sections 703.1
, 703.2, 706A.1, 706A.2, and 706A.4 ; theft in the second degree in violation of sections 702.9, 703.1, 703.2, 714.1, and 714.2 ; conspiracy to commit a nonforcible felony in violation of sections 703.1, 703.2, 706.1, and 706.3 ; fraudulent practices in the second degree in violation of sections 703.1, 703.2, 714.8, and 714.10 ; and fraudulent...
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