Opinion
No. 1-930 / 00-1393.
Filed March 13, 2002.
Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Black Hawk County, JOSEPH MOOTHART, District Associate Judge.
The defendant appeals his conviction and sentence for assault domestic abuse causing bodily injury. AFFIRMED.
Gregory Greiner of Randall Nelson, Waterloo, for appellant.
Thomas J. Miller, Attorney General, and Denise Timmins, Assistant Attorney General, Linda Myers, Assistant Blackhawk County Attorney, for appellee.
Considered by HUITINK, P.J., and ZIMMER and VAITHESWARAN, JJ.
Edward Knoebel challenges the sufficiency of the evidence to support his conviction for assault domestic abuse causing bodily injury. We affirm.
I. Background Facts and Proceedings
A jury could have found the following facts. Knoebel had a relationship with Angela Reiners for about five years. They had one child together. About a year and a half after the relationship ended, Reiners awoke to find Knoebel climbing into her bed. Hearing a car running outside, she opened the door, saw Knoebel's friends, and let them know they had dropped him off at the wrong place. Reiners then went in and asked Knoebel if he knew where he was, as he appeared to have been drinking. Knoebel started choking her and she ultimately lost consciousness. When she regained consciousness, Reiners called Knoebel's mother and her own mother, who in turn called 911.
The State charged Knoebel with (1) assault domestic abuse with intent to cause serious injury, and (2) assault domestic abuse causing bodily injury. See Iowa Code §§ 708.2A(2)(c), 708.2A(2)(b) (1999). A jury found him guilty of only the second charge. Following imposition of judgment and sentence, Knoebel appealed. He challenges the sufficiency of the evidence to support the conviction.
The State contends Knoebel failed to preserve error on his sufficiency of the evidence challenge because his motion for judgment of acquittal addressed only Count I of the trial information. We choose to bypass Knoebel's serious preservation-of-error problem and proceed to the merits. See State v. Taylor, 596 N.W.2d 55, 56(Iowa 1999).
II. Sufficiency of the Evidence
Our review of challenges to the sufficiency of the evidence is for errors of law. State v. Thomas, 561 N.W.2d 37, 39 (Iowa 1997). We will uphold a jury verdict if it is supported by substantial evidence. State v. Chang, 587 N.W.2d 459, 461-62 (Iowa 1998).
The jury was instructed that the State would have to prove all of the following elements of assault domestic abuse causing bodily injury:
1. On or about April 2, 2000, the defendant did an act with [sic] was meant to cause pain or injury or did an act which was intended to result in physical contact which was insulting or offensive to Angela Reiners.
2. The defendant had the apparent ability to do the act.
3. The defendant's act caused a bodily injury to Angela Reiners as defined in [a separate instruction].
4. The defendant acted without justification.
5. The act was between persons who are parents of the same minor child.
The record contains substantial evidence to support each of these elements. The fifth element is undisputed. As for the first four elements, the jury could have found from Reiners' testimony that Knoebel choked Reiners without provocation, making it difficult for her to breathe and causing her to pass out. This testimony was corroborated by Knoebel's mother who stated she arrived at Reiners' home to find her "crying and hysterical." Reiners eventually threw up in her presence. Later, Reiners' mother came to the home. She noticed red marks on Reiners' neck, as did a police officer who arrived at the scene. Police photographs revealing bruises and scratches on Reiners' body also corroborated her testimony.
The jury was free to credit this evidence over Knoebel's testimony that he was merely trying to fend off Reiners' attack. State v. Hickman, 623 N.W.2d 847, 849 (Iowa 2001). Knoebel himself admitted that he had his knee on Reiners' stomach to try and "hold her down," a posture the jury could have found was inconsistent with Knoebel's claim that Reiners was assaulting him. In addition, a police officer testified that when Knoebel came to the police station, he did not complain of any injuries to himself and the officer saw no signs of any injuries. As for Knoebel's claim of inconsistencies in Reiners' testimony, it was the jury's prerogative to weigh these inconsistencies and assess the credibility of the witnesses. See State v. Shortridge, 589 N.W.2d 76, 80 (Iowa Ct.App. 1998).
Finding substantial evidence to support Knoebel's conviction, we affirm his judgment and sentence for domestic abuse assault causing bodily injury.