DES MOINES – A convicted meth dealer out of Cerro Gordo county tried to play the mental illness card in his appeal, but failed bigly.
Reed Barclay, age 35, appealed his indeterminate fifteen-year prison sentence for delivery of methamphetamine as a habitual offender. He alleged the sentencing court discriminated against him because he suffers from mental illness, and he sought to have his prison sentence vacated and be admitted into drug court. He has been free while this appeal was processed in the courts; he was arrested on December 28 by Osage police on an un-related charge of possession of drug paraphernalia.
The Iowa Court of Appeals ruled this week that Barclay’s claim of discrimination does not lead to his desired remedy and affirmed his judgment and sentence.
Court records show that Barclay was a daily user of methamphetamine and was diagnosed with a severe amphetamine-type substance-abuse disorder. He received in-patient treatment at Prairie Ridge Integrated Behavioral Healthcare in Mason City in 2015, but he left the program in December of that year and was hospitalized at the Mercy Medical Center psychiatric unit.