State of Iowa v. Alexander Cutshall, 16-1646

Defendant Alexander Cutshall pled guilty to lascivious acts with a child and assault with intent to commit sexual abuse and was sentenced to prison and jail terms, largely suspended, with probation.
As a condition of probation the court prohibited Cutshall from possessing any phone or device with internet capability.
The State’s original charges covered multi-year timeframes and two victims; Cutshall pled to lesser offenses that retained the same timeframes.
The presentence investigation and a psychosexual report (unobjected to) referenced the multi-year timeframes and multiple incidents.
Cutshall appealed, arguing (1) the internet prohibition was unreasonable, (2) the court relied on unproven or unadmitted facts/offenses in sentencing, and (3) the court failed to consider his juvenile-offender status per Miller/Null/Lyle.
The court vacated only the internet-access probation condition and remanded to strike it; all other aspects of the sentence were affirmed.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Reasonableness of probation condition barring internet-capable devices	State agreed the internet ban was overly broad given facts	Cutshall: ban is unreasonable because record lacks use of internet to locate victims	Condition vacated and remanded to be stricken
Reliance on unproven/unadmitted facts (multi-year/multiple acts) at sentencing	Court may consider PSI and psychosexual report materials not objected to	Cutshall: court impermissibly relied on alleged repeated conduct/timeframes not admitted	No reversible error; court permissibly considered unobjected-to reports and incorporated timeframes
Consideration of juvenile-offender status and Miller protections	State: Miller-type individualized hearing not required absent mandatory minimum	Cutshall: court abused discretion/violated Eighth Amendment by not making Miller/Null/Lyle findings	Propps controlling; no Miller hearing required because no mandatory minimum; issue rejected

State v. Valin, 724 N.W.2d 440 (Iowa 2006) (reasonableness standard for probation conditions)
State v. Black, 324 N.W.2d 313 (Iowa 1982) (sentence must be set aside if based on unprosecuted, unadmitted, unproven offenses)
State v. Grandberry, 619 N.W.2d 399 (Iowa 2000) (court may consider unchallenged portions of PSI at sentencing)
State v. Witham, 583 N.W.2d 677 (Iowa 1998) (sentencing court free to consider psychiatric evaluation portions of PSI not objected to)
Miller v. Alabama, 132 S. Ct. 2455 (2012) (Eighth Amendment limits mandatory life-without-parole sentences for juveniles)
State v. Lyle, 854 N.W.2d 378 (Iowa 2014) (application of Miller principles in Iowa)
State v. Null, 836 N.W.2d 41 (Iowa 2013) (juvenile sentencing and Miller-related analysis)