IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF IOWA
No. 16-1401
Filed January 25, 2017
STATE OF IOWA,
Plaintiff-Appellee,
vs.
JAMES E. HAWKINS,
Defendant-Appellant.
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Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Scott County, Henry W. Latham II,
Judge.
James Hawkins appeals his sentence, claiming the district court abused
its discretion. AFFIRMED.
Les M. Blair III of Blair & Fitzsimmons, P.C., Dubuque, for appellant.
Thomas J. Miller, Attorney General, and Darrel L. Mullins, Assistant
Attorney General, for appellee.
Considered by Danilson, C.J., and Vogel and Vaitheswaran, JJ.
2
VAITHESWARAN, Judge.
James Hawkins pled guilty to delivery of marijuana and failure to affix a
drug tax stamp. The district court sentenced him to two prison terms not
exceeding five years, to be served concurrently. On appeal, Hawkins contends
the district court “abused its discretion in sentencing [him] to 5 years in prison
instead of suspending the sentence and placing [him] on probation . . . with
conditions that he obtain a substance abuse evaluation and comply with any
treatment recommendations.”
We discern no abuse of discretion in the court’s sentencing decision. See
State v. Hopkins, 860 N.W.2d 550, 553 (Iowa 2015) (setting forth standard of
review). The district court commended Hawkins for expressing a desire to
change his life but imposed prison sentences based on his “very lengthy criminal
history” and his failure “to actively cooperate in the preparation of the
Presentence Investigation Report,” which did not bode well for “cooperati[on] with
probation.” These were appropriate considerations. See State v. Willingham,
No. 15-1075, 2016 WL 3282858, at *1 (Iowa Ct. App. June 15, 2016)
(acknowledging the defendant’s “positive” activities but affirming the rejection of
his request for a suspended sentence with probation based on his “lengthy
criminal history” and the fact that he “was on probation for the same offense
when the current offense took place”).
AFFIRMED.