IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF IOWA
No. 19-1028
Filed April 15, 2020
STATE OF IOWA,
Plaintiff-Appellee,
vs.
JUSTIN M. WOODS,
Defendant-Appellant.
________________________________________________________________
Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Scott County, Mary E. Howes,
Judge.
A defendant appeals his conviction of a controlled-substance violation.
AFFIRMED.
Taryn R. McCarthy of Clemens, Walters, Conlon, Runde & Hiatt, L.L.P.,
Dubuque, for appellant.
Thomas J. Miller, Attorney General, and Tyler J. Buller, Assistant Attorney
General, for appellee.
Considered by Tabor, P.J., and Mullins and Schumacher, JJ.
2
MULLINS, Judge.
Justin Woods appeals his conviction, following a guilty plea, of
manufacturing, delivering, or possessing methamphetamine with the intent to
manufacture or deliver.1 He argues his counsel rendered ineffective assistance in
failing to move for suppression of evidence obtained as an allegedly
unconstitutional seizure.
Because Woods pled guilty, we are without the benefit of a suppression or
trial record. His argument is based wholly on the minutes of evidence. As a result
of record inadequacies, ineffective-assistance claims are normally preserved for
postconviction-relief proceedings. State v. Brown, 930 N.W.2d 840, 844 (Iowa
2019). Doing so “allows the parties to develop an adequate record of the claims
and provides the attorney charged with ineffective assistance with the ‘opportunity
to respond to defendant’s claims.’” State v. Harrison, 914 N.W.2d 178, 206 (Iowa
2018) (quoting State v. Soboroff, 798 N.W.2d 1, 8 (Iowa 2011)). When an issue is
not raised in the district court and a record developed thereon, it leaves appellate
courts with a skeletal record, which is what we have here. We agree with the State
that the minutes of evidence “are a poor substitute for a fully-fleshed out
suppression record,” and we find the record inadequate to determine whether
counsel failed to perform an essential duty or prejudice resulted. See Strickland
v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 687 (1984); State v. Kuhse, 937 N.W.2d 622, 628
(Iowa 2020). As such, we affirm Woods’s conviction but preserve his ineffective-
1 Woods also pled guilty to one count of domestic abuse assault causing bodily
injury in a separate misdemeanor case.
3
assistance claim for a possible postconviction-relief proceeding. See Iowa Code
§ 814.7(3) (2018).2
AFFIRMED.
2Effective July 1, 2019, section 814.7 was amended to prohibit claims of ineffective
assistance of counsel to be raised or decided on direct appeal. 2019 Iowa Acts
ch. 140, § 31. Because judgment and sentence were entered prior to the statutory
amendment’s effective date, it does not apply to Woods’s direct appeal. See State
v. Macke, 933 N.W.2d 226, 228 (Iowa 2019).