IN THE SUPREME COURT OF IOWA No. 19–1139 Filed May 29, 2020 STATE OF IOWA, Appellee, vs. MERCEDES JOJEAN DAMME, Appellant. Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Grundy County, Jeffrey L. Harris, Judge. Defendant appeals sentence imposed after conviction based on guilty plea, and State argues lack of good cause to appeal under Iowa Code section 814.6 (2019). AFFIRMED. Anne K. Wilson of Anne K. Wilson Law Office, PLLC, Cedar Rapids, for appellant. Thomas J. Miller, Attorney General, Tyler J. Buller, Assistant Attorney General, Erika L. Allen, County Attorney, and Kali Adams, Assistant County Attorney, for appellee. 2 WATERMAN, Justice. This case presents our first opportunity to adjudicate the “good cause” requirement under Iowa Code section 814.6 (2019) to appeal from a conviction based on the defendant’s guilty plea. This defendant pled guilty to theft and was convicted and sentenced on July 1, 2019, the first day the amendment to section 814.6 became effective. Her appeal challenges the sentence imposed, not her guilty plea or conviction. The State argues we must dismiss the appeal because the defendant fails to show good cause as required under the amendment. This new statute does not define good cause, and we retained the case to determine its meaning in this context. On our review, we determine this defendant satisfies the good-cause requirement to proceed with her appellate challenge to the sentence imposed. The legislature amended section 814.6 to curtail frivolous appeals from guilty pleas and thereby enforce their finality. We conclude that “good cause” means a “legally sufficient reason.” We hold that the good-cause requirement is satisfied in this context when the defendant appeals a sentence that was neither mandatory nor agreed to in the plea bargain. We therefore decline to dismiss the appeal. On the merits, her challenge fails, so we affirm her sentence. I. Background Facts and Proceedings. This case arises from two related thefts in Grundy Center. On March 25, 2018, Kathy Grittman’s wallet was stolen off her kitchen table while she was at home. Grittman called police and told investigating officer Alissa Loew that her daughter’s friend had been over to play and was picked up by Mercedes JoJean Damme, the sitter. No one else was in the house when the wallet went missing, and Grittman suspected Damme stole it. Damme had chatted with Grittman in the kitchen and asked for 3 a Band-Aid for a cut on her thumb, which Grittman retrieved from a connected bathroom. Damme then asked for triple antibiotic ointment, which Grittman fetched from an upstairs bathroom, leaving Damme alone in the kitchen. Shortly after Damme departed, Grittman found a Band-Aid wrapper on the table where the wallet had been. She phoned Damme, who denied taking it. The next day, after returning home from work, Christopher Conway noticed items missing from his home, including his laptop, a lockbox that contained tax information, a flash drive, keys to his 1994 Pontiac Grand Am, and numerous rare coins. Conway had left his home unlocked while he was ...
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