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Man who committed violent crime against women in Mason City loses appeal, will stay in prison

MASON CITY – A Mason City who kicked in the door to a woman’s apartment, stole her rent money and basically terrorized her lost an appeal on his prison sentence and will stay behind bars.

On December 31, 2016, Montez Guise went to his ex-girlfriend M.J.’s Mason City apartment at the 1400 block of North Federal and entered the premises by kicking in the door. At that time, according to court documents, there was a valid no-contact order between Guise and M.J., with M.J. being the protected party. Guise left the apartment, taking the apartment key and M.J.’s rent money with him. M.J. barricaded the door, fearing Guise would return. Guise returned shortly thereafter, kicked down M.J.’s apartment door, and started breaking items in the home.

The dispatcher sent Mason City police officers to M.J.’s apartment for a welfare check after receiving reports that M.J. and her friend Gloria, who was also inside the apartment, were in danger. When officers arrived, Guise prevented M.J. and Gloria from answering the door. The officers kicked down the door and arrested Guise as he was trying to escape out of an apartment window.

The State charged Guise with burglary in the second degree, a class “C” felony, in violation of Iowa Code sections 713.1 and 713.5 (2017) and false imprisonment, in violation of Iowa Code section 710.7, a serious misdemeanor. On February 6, 2017, Guise pled guilty to burglary in the second degree as part of a plea agreement. The court released him to the department of correctional services on pretrial release pending sentencing.

Under the plea agreement, for Guise’s burglary charge, the State recommended a ten-year prison sentence, suspended; probation; and a one-thousand dollar fine, suspended. In exchange for his plea, the State dismissed the false imprisonment and related simple misdemeanors, and refrained from asserting the habitual offender enhancement.

On February 23, the department of corrections reported Guise had violated his conditions of release. The department of corrections reported Guise failed to show up for a probation appointment, violated his no- contact order, resisted arrest, and was in possession of drug paraphernalia. The State charged him with the additional charge of interference with official acts, a serious misdemeanor, stemming from his arrest on the violation of the no-contact order. Guise pled guilty to this charge prior to sentencing.

On March 14, the Mason City probation/parole office filed Guise’s presentence investigation report (PSI), which it had prepared at the direction of the district court. The PSI stated the interviewer completed an IRR. The IRR recommended Guise be supervised at an intensive level. Guise did not object to the district court’s use of the PSI at sentencing and made only one correction after reviewing the PSI—his explosive attitude only refers to him while on methamphetamine.

On March 20, the court sentenced Guise. At the sentencing hearing, the State recommended the sentence in the plea agreement for the burglary charge. For Guise’s interference with official acts resulting in the bodily injury charge, the State recommended one year in jail, suspended; probation for two years; and fines. In other words, the State recommended no jail time.

The district court rejected the sentence recommended by the State for the burglary charge and sentenced Guise to prison for an indeterminate term, not to exceed ten years. For the interference with official acts charge, the district court also rejected the sentence recommended by the State and sentenced Guise to ninety days in jail, to be served concurrently with the burglary sentence.

Guise filed a motion of appeal from the final judgment and sentencing. We transferred the case to the court of appeals. The court of appeals vacated the district court’s sentence and remanded, holding there is “no legislative authority supporting the use of the IRR at sentencing.” The State requested further review, which the Iowa Supreme Court granted.

In December, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled in favor of the District Court ruling, upholding Guise’s prison sentence.

Guise was also accused back in June of 2016 with assaulting a woman on a pedestrian bridge in downtown Mason City near Southbridge Mall.

In March of 2017, Guise battled accused double-murderer Peter Veal in the Cerro Gordo county jail and was charged with a crime. When cops tried to arrest Guise a month earlier at his probation officer’s office, he resisted officers and caused one of them to be injured; he was charged with a crime in that incident as well.

Guise remains held in the North Central Correctional Facility in Rockwell City, Iowa.

BOOKING PHOTO
Guise
PRISON PHOTO
GUISE, MONTEZ JAVON LAMONT
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