Case Information
*1 IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF IOWA
No. 15-2039
Filed February 22, 2017
STATE OF IOWA,
Plaintiff-Appellee,
vs.
DARWIN ANGELO JONES SR.,
Defendant-Appellant. ________________________________________________________________
Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Polk County, William A. Price, District Associate Judge.
Darwin Jones Sr. appeals , challenging the district court’s sentencing decision. AFFIRMED.
Matthew O’Hollearn of Brick Gentry, P.C., West Des Moines , for appellant. Thomas J. Miller, Attorney General, and Thomas J. Ogden, Assistant Attorney General, for appellee.
Considered by Danilson, C.J., and Vogel and Vaitheswaran, JJ.
2
VAITHESWARAN, Judge.
Darwin Jones appeals his sentence for second-degree harassment. He contends the district court abused its discretion in sentencing him to twenty days in jail rather than granting him probation as he requested. See State v . Seats , 865 N.W.2d 545, 552 (Iowa 2015) (setting forth standard of review).
The State requested a thirty-day jail sentence. In imposing a twenty-day sentence, the district court “ largely ” relied on Jones ’ s criminal history. The court stated, “ Well, sir, you ’ ve been to prison twice. There is not much more that probation can do after two trips to prison on fairly significant offenses, very serious offenses actually. ”
Although the prison sentences were dated, the State pointed out Jones was convicted more recently of domestic assault and second-degree harassment. As the State noted, “T he pattern is, obviously, continued criminal activity. ” See State v . Boltz , 542 N.W.2d 9, 11 (Iowa Ct. App. 1995) (stating “ backdrop ” presented during sentencing proceeding supplemented the district court ’ s reasons for the sentence).
The court ’ s statement also suggests the court held out little hope of rehabilitation. Despite this pessimism, the court imposed a shorter sentence than the State requested, evincing an exercise of its discretion. We discern no abuse of discretion in the court ’ s sentence.
AFFIRMED.