STATE v. ODHUNG (2020)

A jury found nineteen-year-old Chanjuok Obuing Odhung guilty of first-degree robbery after hearing evidence he drove the getaway car. The district court entered judgment in November 2019, sentencing him to twenty-five years in prison with a fifty-percent minimum term. First, Odhung claims his trial attorney failed to make a proper motion for judgment of acquittal. Second, he urges mandatory-minimum terms are cruel and unusual punishment for all teenaged offenders and thus unconstitutional. See Iowa Const. art. I, § 17.

Because of statutory amendments to Iowa Code section 814.6 (2019), we lack authority to consider Odhung's ineffective-assistance-of-counsel claim on direct appeal. See State v. Damme, 944 N.W.2d 98, 109 (Iowa 2020) (holding statutory revisions applied to judgment entered on or after July 1, 2019). Odhung may challenge counsel's performance if he petitions for postconviction relief.

Our hands are tied on his sentencing issue too. State v. Lyle held that the Iowa Constitution prohibits imposing mandatory-minimum sentences on offenders who committed their crimes as juveniles. 854 N.W.2d 378, 404 (Iowa 2014). That holding applies only to offenders under age eighteen. Id. at 403 (noting “lines are drawn by necessity”). Nothing in the language from State v. Sweet, 879 N.W.2d 811, 838 (Iowa 2016), changes the reach of Lyle’s holding. See State v. Allen, No. 16-0095, 2017 WL 2181178, at *2 (Iowa Ct. App. May 17, 2017); Burton v. State, No. 16-0670, 2017 WL 510951, at *1 (Iowa Ct. App. Feb. 8, 2017). We must leave any extension of Lyle to our supreme court. See State v. Miller, 841 N.W.2d 583, 584 n.1 (Iowa 2014) (confirming the court of appeals must rely on precedent).

AFFIRMED.

TABOR, Judge.