DAVID ERROL WILLOCK v. STATE OF IOWA (2025)

Court of Appeals of Iowa.

DAVID ERROL WILLOCK, Applicant-Appellant, v. STATE OF IOWA, Respondent-Appellee.

No. 24-0014

Decided: June 18, 2025

Considered without oral argument by Greer, P.J., and Langholz and Sandy, JJ.

Pamela Wingert of Wingert Law Office, Spirit Lake, for appellant. Brenna Bird, Attorney General, and Joseph D. Ferrentino, Assistant Attorney General, for appellee.

In 2005, a jury found David Willock guilty of first-degree kidnapping, first-degree robbery, and first-degree burglary; he was sentenced to life in prison. Willock challenged his convictions on direct appeal, and procedendo issued in 2008.¹ Accordingly, Willock's three-year window to seek postconviction relief (PCR) closed in 2011. See Iowa Code § 822.3 (2011). Yet he filed this PCR action in July 2023 summarily challenging his convictions. The district court dismissed his application as time-barred.

Willock appeals, urging us to overrule our supreme court's holding that the statute of limitations is constitutional. See Davis v. State, 443 N.W.2d 707, 710–11 (Iowa 1989) (“[D]ue process requires that the interest of the state and the defendant be balanced in determining the reasonableness of a period of limitations․ We believe that a three-year period after the conviction or appeal is final is not unreasonable. We also believe the legislature, within its sound discretion, may determine the proper limitation period.”). We cannot overrule precedent from our supreme court. See State v. Beck, 854 N.W.2d 56, 64 (Iowa Ct. App. 2014). We are bound by its prior rejection of a federal due-process challenge to the statute of limitations. See Davis, 443 N.W.2d at 710–11.

So, we affirm the district court's dismissal of Willock's application without further opinion. See Iowa Ct. R. 21.26(1)(a), (c), (e). AFFIRMED.

FOOTNOTES

1. Our court has addressed several previous direct appeals related to this case. See generally State v. Willock, No. 07-1200, 2008 WL 783372 (Iowa Ct. App. Mar. 26, 2008); State v. Willock, No. 06-0343, 2007 WL 750646 (Iowa Ct. App. Mar. 14, 2007); State v. Willock, No. 03-1944, 2004 WL 2951988 (Iowa Ct. App. Dec. 22, 2004). We have also affirmed the denial of Willock's previous PCR applications. See generally Willock v. State, No. 19-1393, 2021 WL 4592738 (Iowa Ct. App. Oct. 6, 2021); Willock v. State, No. 13-0997, 2014 WL 7343215 (Iowa Ct. App. Dec. 24, 2014).

GREER, Presiding Judge.

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