Opinion ID: 2170066
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Failure to Move to Suppress Petitioner's Statement.

Text: Immediately after his wife's death petitioner told several persons that he had just shot her. When arrested, however, he denied any involvement in the shooting and instead told the officers to be on the lookout for the persons from Des Moines who had shot her. Petitioner argues that he was denied effective assistance of counsel because his trial counsel did not move to suppress those statements. Defendant's statements were relevant because a false story concocted by defendant to deny a material fact is itself an indication of guilt. State v. Odem, 322 N.W.2d 43, 47 (Iowa 1982); State v. Schrier, 300 N.W.2d 305, 309 (Iowa 1981); State v. Tornquist, 254 Iowa 1135, 1145, 120 N.W.2d 483, 489 (1963). Moreover, petitioner has not established any realistic factual basis on which his counsel could have based a suppression motion. He has not established that petitioner's statements were involuntary or that his constitutional rights were otherwise violated. From our review of the entire record we find that petitioner's trial counsel correctly concluded that petitioner's statements were admissible and not vulnerable to a motion to suppress.