State of Iowa v. Donarease Lawless, 16-1562

On April 20, 2016 Lawless drove to Linda Bailey's home seeking her son, threatened family members, left, then returned and twice drove slowly past the house while pointing what witnesses believed was a black handgun, causing fear.
Officers attempted a traffic stop; the vehicle fled, was abandoned, and occupants ran. Lawless was located and arrested shortly thereafter.
Lawless was charged with possession of a firearm by a felon, assault with a dangerous weapon, interference with official acts, and assault on a police officer; he pled guilty to the latter two counts and proceeded to jury trial on the firearm and assault counts.
Lawless moved in limine to exclude video/audio of his post-arrest conduct (combative, swearing, resisting), arguing irrelevance and unfair prejudice; the court denied the motion.
At trial, defense counsel expressly stated “[n]o objection” when the patrol-car video was offered and it was admitted; the jury viewed the video during deliberations and convicted Lawless of both counts.
On appeal Lawless challenged admission of the post-arrest videotape (relevancy/prejudice and as other-bad-acts evidence), and alternatively claimed ineffective assistance for counsel’s failure to object to other-bad-acts admission.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether Lawless preserved objection to videotape on relevancy/prejudice grounds	State: defendant waived by failing to object at trial; court’s limine ruling was not final	Lawless: motion in limine sought exclusion; videotape was prejudicial and irrelevant	Waiver — defense counsel expressly said no objection; motion-in-limine ruling was not final, so error preserved only by trial objection (which was not made)
Whether videotape was inadmissible other-bad-acts evidence under Rule 5.404(b)	State: conduct shortly after incident was relevant to state of mind, motive, intent; not offered to show character	Lawless: videotape impermissibly showed other bad acts to prove propensity	Not preserved; raised as ineffective-assistance claim instead
Whether trial counsel rendered ineffective assistance by not objecting to videotape as other-bad-acts evidence	Lawless: counsel had duty to object; failure was prejudicial	State: even if excluded, other overwhelming evidence of guilt remained	No ineffective assistance — Lawless failed to show a reasonable probability of a different outcome without the tape because evidence of guilt was overwhelming
Whether admission of the videotape requires reversal of convictions	Lawless: admission was unfairly prejudicial and warrants reversal	State: error waived or harmless; convictions supported without tape	Affirmed — convictions for possession of a firearm by a felon and assault with a dangerous weapon upheld

State v. Tangie, 616 N.W.2d 564 (Iowa 2000) (motion in limine ruling treated as final only when court indicates finality)
State v. Daly, 623 N.W.2d 799 (Iowa 2001) (clarifies when pretrial rulings on motions in limine are binding)
State v. Brown, 656 N.W.2d 355 (Iowa 2003) (affirmative consent to evidence at trial waives prior objections)
State v. Ondayog, 722 N.W.2d 778 (Iowa 2006) (ineffective-assistance claims are not subject to normal preservation rules)
State v. Casady, 597 N.W.2d 801 (Iowa 1999) (admission of other-crimes evidence is harmless where guilt is supported by substantial evidence)