MASON CITY – A Mason City man who pled guilty to crimes he committed at a local hotel has lost an appeal.
Mason City police were called to the American Best Inn & Suites on the evening of Tuesday, August 11 after a report of a burglary. After an investigation, officers arrested a male suspect who was staying in a room on the second level, 50-year-old James Tyrone Woods. A room on the first level at the hotel had allegedly been burglarized and Woods had displayed a weapon. Woods forced his way into the hotel room, believing its occupants had stolen his cell phone. He pushed one occupant, “patted down” another occupant, referenced his possession of a gun, and threatened to kill the occupants if they did not return the cell phone. In addition, in the written guilty plea that was filed in Woods’s criminal action, Woods admitted to having “the intent to commit a felony, assault, or theft” when he entered the occupied structure without permission.
Woods was charged with felony second degree burglary, assault while participating in a felony, 1st degree harassment and public intoxication.
In a plea deal, Woods was convicted of one count of second-degree burglary and one count of second-degree harassment. The charge of assault while participating in a felony was dismissed. Woods received suspended sentences for his convictions, was placed on probation for five years, and ordered to reside at a residential facility.
Woods filed an application for postconviction relief (PCR) following his conviction for second-degree burglary and second-degree harassment. The district court denied the application and he appealed, asserting the PCR court erred in denying his claim that his trial attorney was ineffective, the PCR court used the minutes of testimony improperly, and his PCR counsel was ineffective. The Iowa Court of Appeals found that because the district court correctly denied Woods’s claims of ineffective assistance of trial counsel, Woods cannot prove his PCR counsel was ineffective, there was no error in the PCR court’s use of the minutes of testimony. The court affirmed the district court’s denial of Woods’s PCR application.
