Man who robbed woman on way to gym in Mason City loses appeal

DES MOINES – A man who robbed a woman on the way to a gym in Mason City has lost an appeal in his case.

In May 2004, Nathan Dominic Curtis approached a woman on her way to the gym, put a knife to her throat, and asked for her money, court records show. The woman responded that she did not have any money, and Curtis demanded she give him her gym bag instead. Curtis was eighteen years old at the time. He was arrested by Mason City police and charged with felony first-degree robbery.

In October of that year, a jury convicted Curtis of robbery in the first degree, a class “B” felony. The district court sentenced Curtis to a term of incarceration not to exceed twenty-five years and imposed a mandatory minimum of seventy percent.

On December 4, 2014, Curtis filed a post-conviction relief application alleging ineffective assistance of counsel. He subsequently amended the application, asserting the mandatory minimum sentence imposed was illegal and he should have received an individualized sentencing hearing because he was only eighteen years old at the time he committed the robbery. The district court entered a ruling rejecting Curtis’s argument and dismissing the action.

Curtis claimed on appeal that his sentence of twenty-five years’ incarceration with a mandatory minimum of seventy percent violates his constitutional right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment under the both the Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and article I, section 17 of the Iowa Constitution. He asks us to adopt a categorical ban on all mandatory minimum sentences for offenders who were age twenty-five or younger when they committed the punishable offense or for every defendant regardless of his or her age at the time of the commission of the crime. He contends all criminal defendants subject to a mandatory minimum sentence should receive an individualized sentencing hearing during which the court considers individual circumstances and any mitigating factors.

The Iowa Court of Appeals affirmed the district court’s dismissal of Curtis’ appeal. He remains in the Clarinda Correctional Facility, serving his sentence.