CEDAR RAPIDS – A man who sexually assaulted a woman after he distributed methamphetamine to her was sentenced on June 25, 2021, to more than sixteen years in federal prison.
Herman Lee Ronnfeldt, age 56, from West Union, Iowa, received the prison term after a January 15, 2021 guilty plea to possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine.
Information from sentencing showed that Ronnfeldt, a convicted sex offender, was living in West Union, Iowa, in late 2018. In December 2018, law enforcement officers searched his apartment and located more than eighty grams of methamphetamine. Witnesses testified at sentencing that Ronnfeldt regularly distributed methamphetamine to people at his apartment. On one such occasion, Ronnfeldt distributed methamphetamine to a woman that caused her to feel ill. He then sexually assaulted her.
Ronnfeldt was sentenced in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Judge C.J. Williams. In sentencing Ronnfeldt, Judge Williams noted that Ronnfeldt’s criminal conduct had not slowed down with age, and that Ronnfeldt had continued to distribute dangerous drugs and commit sexual assaults. Judge Williams found that the appropriate sentence was 224 months’ imprisonment. Judge Williams adjusted the sentence to account for time Ronnfeldt had spent in custody for related offenses to 194 months and 20 days’ imprisonment. Ronnfeldt must also serve a 10-year term of supervised release after the prison term. There is no parole in the federal system.
Ronnfeldt is being held in the United States Marshal’s custody until he can be transported to a federal prison.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Kyndra Lundquist and investigated by the Iowa Division of Narcotics Enforcement, the West Union Police Department, and the Fayette County Sheriff’s Office.
