Court Opinion

ID: 9892978
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-10-25 17:07:02.365554+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T08:50:55.813171
License: Public Domain

IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF IOWA

                                   No. 23-0004
                             Filed October 25, 2023

STATE OF IOWA,
     Plaintiff-Appellee,

vs.

KEATYN CHARLES PALMATEER,
     Defendant-Appellant.
________________________________________________________________

      Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Story County, Steven P. Van Marel,

District Associate Judge.

      Keatyn Palmateer appeals the sentence imposed following his pleas of

guilty to felony eluding and person ineligible to carry a weapon. AFFIRMED.

      Agnes Warutere of Warutere Law Firm P.L.L.C., Ankeny, for appellant.

      Brenna Bird, Attorney General, and Joseph D. Ferrentino, Assistant

Attorney General, for appellee.

      Considered by Tabor, P.J., Chicchelly, J., and Scott, S.J.*

      *Senior judge assigned by order pursuant to Iowa Code section 602.9206

(2023).
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SCOTT, Senior Judge.

      Eighteen-year-old Keatyn Palmateer and the State entered into a plea

agreement whereby Palmateer would plead guilty to felony eluding (in excess of

twenty-five miles an hour over the speed limit) and being a person ineligible to

carry a weapon in exchange for the State dropping several other charges. As

agreed, the State recommended the court suspend the sentences and order

probation for two years. The defense noted Palmateer’s age, history of trauma as

a child, being the father of two young children, successful completion of

programming in a juvenile program, and current employment. The defense argued

a felony conviction would impose “outsized collateral consequences” and asked

the court to defer judgment.

      The district court considered relevant factors of Palmateer’s age, recent

prior eluding charge, and the need to protect the community from further offenses

and rehabilitate the offender. The court stated:

              Obviously, Mr. Palmateer, up to this stage in your life you have
      had difficulties making good decisions. On the eluding charge,
      you’re asking that judgment be deferred, which is a pretty hard
      decision for this court given that in 2021 you were convicted of
      eluding as an adult, and then you went out and you committed the
      very same offense.
              Mr. Palmateer, you have to understand that especially on the
      eluding charge, when you commit that offense, you placed yourself
      at risk, you placed police officers at risk, and more importantly—most
      importantly you placed innocent members of our community at risk.
      Really it’s just a matter of luck and nothing else that you were not
      involved in a serious accident and that you didn’t kill or injure
      somebody’s child or destroy someone’s family.
              I am not going to defer judgment on this charge, not after you
      had an eluding charge already, and then you go out and you commit
      basically the very same offense, but even to a more dangerous
      degree. You committed the new offense of eluding. So—but on the
      other hand, I don’t think you need to go to prison either, so I will
      impose that five-year prison term and suspend it. I’ll suspend one-
                                         3

       year jail sentence on the weapons charge, and then put you on
       probation.
               Probation is your opportunity to demonstrate to the
       community and to your family, that you understand you made some
       poor decisions but you can and will do a better job in the future. Mr.
       Palmateer, you are still a very young man. If you make the right
       decisions, there’s no reason why you cannot overcome this and go
       out and be successful. Granted, in the short term given this
       conviction, your life is going to be harder than it needs to be, but
       that’s because of these decisions that you’ve made and,
       unfortunately, now you have to suffer the consequences of that poor
       decision making, but I think by the time this probationary period ends,
       you’ll be in a position where you can go out there and you can be
       successful, and you can really have as much success with your life
       as you want to.

       On appeal, Palmateer asserts the court abused its sentencing discretion by

not sufficiently recognizing his “tragic upbringing” and “that he is a product of a

system that failed him.”

       Because Palmateer appeals his sentence, he has established good cause

to appeal. State v. Damme, 944 N.W.2d 98, 105 (Iowa 2020).

       We review sentencing rulings for correction of errors at law. Id. at 103.

“[T]he decision of the district court to impose a particular sentence within the

statutory limits is cloaked with a strong presumption in its favor, and will only be

overturned for an abuse of discretion or the consideration of inappropriate

matters.” State v. Formaro, 638 N.W.2d 720, 724 (Iowa 2002). On our review, we

find the district court did not abuse its discretion “on grounds or for reasons that

were clearly untenable or unreasonable.” Id. We therefore affirm.

       AFFIRMED.