IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF IOWA

No. 16-0083

Filed September 14, 2016

STATE OF IOWA,

Plaintiff-Appellee,

vs.

RICO T. McNEAL,

Defendant-Appellant.

________________________________________________________________

Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Scott County, Joel W. Barrows, 

Judge.

Rico McNeal appeals following judgment and sentence entered upon his 

guilty pleas. AFFIRMED.

Zeke R. McCartney of Reynolds & Kenline, L.L.P., Dubuque, for appellant.

Thomas J. Miller, Attorney General, and Louis S. Sloven, Assistant 

Attorney General, for appellee.

Considered by Danilson, C.J., and Mullins and Bower, JJ.
2

DANILSON, Chief Judge.

Rico McNeal appeals following judgment and sentence entered upon his 

guilty pleas to possession with intent to deliver crack cocaine, in violation of Iowa 

Code section 124.401(1)(c)(3) (2015), and possession of marijuana, third or 

subsequent offense, in violation of sections 124.401(5) and 124.204(4)(m). We 

preserve his claim of ineffective assistance of counsel and affirm the convictions.

After the district court denied the defendant’s motion to suppress, the 

parties negotiated a plea deal. McNeal agreed to plead guilty on two counts, and

in exchange, the State agreed to dismiss a third and waived sentencing 

enhancements under Iowa Code sections 124.411 and 902.9. The district court 

accepted that plea agreement and the guilty pleas. The defendant was advised 

of his right to file a motion in arrest of judgment and did not file one. 

McNeal is aware his pleas of guilty waived his defenses or objections not 

intrinsic to the plea. See State v. Carroll, 767 N.W.2d 638, 641 (Iowa 2009) (“It is 

well established that a defendant’s guilty plea waives all defenses and objections 

which are not intrinsic to the plea.”). He anticipates the State’s waiver argument

as to the propriety of the district court’s rejection of his motion to suppress but 

contends that if the claim was waived, it is due to ineffective assistance of 

counsel.1 The usual course is to preserve claims of ineffective assistance of 

counsel for postconviction-relief proceedings. State v. Clay, 824 N.W.2d 488, 

 

1 See Castro v. State, 795 N.W.2d 789, 793 (Iowa 2011) (“[T]he distinction between 

ineffective-assistance-of-counsel claims that do not survive a guilty plea as illustrated in 

Speed [v. State, 616 N.W.2d 158 (Iowa 2000),] and those that do survive is the 

existence of a showing that the pre-plea ineffective assistance of counsel rendered the 

plea involuntary or unintelligent.”).
3

494 (Iowa 2012). We resolve ineffectiveness claims on direct appeal only when 

the record is adequate. Id.

A defendant may challenge the validity of their guilty pleas by proving the 

advice they received from counsel in connection with the plea was not within the 

range of competence demanded of criminal defense attorneys. Carroll, 767 

N.W.2d at 642. McNeal contends trial counsel was ineffective in failing to inform 

him that pleading guilty “may have consequences in the context of any appeal.” 

We do not address this assertion because this record is devoid of evidence about 

what pre-plea advice McNeal’s counsel did or did not give him. See State v. 

Avery, No. 14-0052, 2014 WL 5249196, at *2 (Iowa Ct. App. Oct. 15, 2014) 

(affirming convictions and preserving ineffective-assistance claims for possible 

postconviction relief because there was no record concerning “discussions trial 

counsel may have had with Avery concerning plea negotiations or the viability of 

filing a motion to suppress and possibly foregoing a favorable plea deal” on 

appeal).

We affirm the conviction and preserve McNeal’s claims of ineffective 

assistance of counsel for possible postconviction-relief proceedings. 

AFFIRMED.