DES MOINES – An Osage man who helped rob a Fayette county bank and tried to murder two Iowa State troopers has lost an appeal of his lengthy prison sentence.
The case arose out of an armed bank robbery in 2012 occurring in Fayette County and subsequent police pursuit from Fayette County into Bremer County. William Clayton, now 21, was convicted of one count of robbery in the first degree and two counts of attempted murder. He was sentenced to a term of incarceration not to exceed fifty years, with the sentences for attempted murder to run concurrent to each other but consecutive to the sentence for robbery. The district court imposed mandatory minimum sentences, making Clayton ineligible for release or parole until serving at least seventy percent of his sentence, or thirty-five years.
Clayton appealed, contending the mandatory minimum sentences for first-degree robbery and attempted murder are grossly disproportionate as applied to him, in violation of the federal and state constitutions. His legal team argued that due to his young age the imposition of these sentences violates his rights to equal protection and due process.
The Iowa Court of Appeals ruled last week that this case is not the “rare” circumstance where the mandatory minimum sentence was so grossly disproportionate to the crime to warrant further review of mandatory minimum sentence. Constitutional relief is not available to youthful adult offenders, the court said, and upheld the sentence.
During his plea colloquy, Clayton admitted he pointed an assault rifle at an employee of the bank and demanded money. The bank employees complied with the robbers’ demands and gave them money. The men then exited the bank and fled the scene in a getaway vehicle. During their flight from the scene, the defendants fired six shots at a civilian vehicle responding to reports of the robbery. The defendants also fired numerous shots at a fully marked patrol car, striking the patrol vehicle three times.
The bank robbery was planned and not spur-of-the-moment. Maynard Savings Bank was chosen because the sheriff’s office nearest the bank was twelve miles away and Mumford believed the response time would be slow. On the day before the robbery, Clayton and Mumford were in Charles City preparing the getaway vehicle for the robbery. The two defendants planned to drive the getaway vehicle to Waterloo and scrap it to hide evidence. They planned to purchase a different car in Waterloo and flee to Minnesota. They also discussed their plan to take the stolen money to a casino and launder it.
