Joshua James Mullen v. State of Iowa, 17-1998

Police executed a search warrant at Mullen’s residence and found a psilocybin mushroom grow, harvested mushrooms, items consistent with mushroom cultivation, methamphetamine residue, and firearms; Mullen was a convicted felon.
Mullen was charged with manufacturing a controlled substance within 1000 feet of certain real property (with prior-offender enhancement), possession of methamphetamine (third or subsequent), and 33 counts of failure to affix a drug-tax stamp; minutes of evidence were filed with the information.
Lab results later showed 6.63 grams of psilocyn among all mushrooms and methamphetamine residue; some mushroom samples tested negative for controlled substances.
Mullen entered a negotiated guilty plea to the manufacturing charge (State dismissed other charges and removed the location enhancement; State recommended suspended sentence/probation and RCF placement); he was later revoked and sent to prison.
Mullen filed a postconviction relief (PCR) application claiming ineffective assistance of trial counsel for (1) failing to withdraw due to a conflict of interest and (2) permitting an involuntary/unsupported guilty plea; the PCR court denied relief and Mullen appealed.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether trial counsel was ineffective for failing to withdraw due to a conflict of interest	Mullen contends counsel had a conflict and should have withdrawn	State argues Mullen failed to preserve the claim and district court never ruled on it	Error not preserved; claim not considered on appeal (may be raised later against PCR counsel)
Whether plea was involuntary because counsel misadvised re: tax-stamp charges	Mullen says counsel wrongly believed tax-stamp counts had factual support and hid that from him, causing him to plead	State and plea counsel say counsel knew tax-stamp counts lacked evidence, advised Mullen, and Mullen chose plea to avoid prison	Court found Mullen knew tax-stamp counts lacked support and plea was voluntary; plea supported by facts for manufacturing charge
Whether minutes of evidence supplied factual basis for manufacturing plea	Mullen implies insufficient factual basis (possession of non-illegal mushrooms undermines charge)	State points to harvested mushrooms and cultivation items as factual basis	Minutes provided adequate factual basis; reasonable factfinder could convict on manufacturing
Whether claim of structural error permits review despite preservation failures	Mullen references structural-error/actual innocence doctrines to preserve review	State notes no substantive structural-error argument was presented	Court declined to address structural-error claim due to insufficient development; denied relief

Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668 (standard for ineffective assistance of counsel)
Meier v. Senecaut, 641 N.W.2d 532 (Iowa 2002) (issues must be raised and ruled on to preserve appellate review)
Lado v. State, 804 N.W.2d 248 (Iowa 2011) (consideration of structural error as a form of ineffective assistance)
Allison v. State, 914 N.W.2d 866 (Iowa 2018) (standards for raising successive PCR claims against PCR counsel)
Schmidt v. State, 909 N.W.2d 778 (Iowa 2018) (actual-innocence challenges to plea knowingness and voluntariness)
State v. Ortiz, 789 N.W.2d 761 (Iowa 2010) (factual-basis requirement for guilty pleas)