## Facts

- Davenport police investigated a reported burglary at Kenneth and Lisa Konrardy’s home after repeated calls seeking Lisa were traced to a phone number.
- An officer called the number while posing as Kenneth; Leonard Theodore Miller, Jr. admitted he “kicked in the Konrardys’ door.”
- The officer arranged a meeting; Miller stated he had been with Lisa at a motel and claimed he provided crack cocaine in exchange for sex.
- Miller showed items he said belonged to Lisa (including women’s underwear, a note, and coupons) as proof of the encounter.
- Miller said he entered the Konrardy home to recover $220 he claimed Lisa took from him at the motel.
- The officer identified himself and arrested Miller for third-degree burglary.
- The State charged Miller with third-degree burglary as an habitual offender; Miller pleaded guilty in exchange for dismissal of two other felony charges from another incident.
- The district court sentenced Miller to an indeterminate 15-year term.

## Issues

1. Whether Iowa law requires a sentencing court to include in the written sentencing order a specific accounting of credit for time served.
2. Whether counsel was ineffective for failing to investigate and advise Miller about a claim-of-right theory allegedly negating the intent-to-commit-theft element of burglary.

## Decision

- The court affirmed the judgment and sentence.
- The court held that Iowa law does not require the sentencing order to contain a judicial accounting of credit for time served.
- The court held counsel was not ineffective for failing to raise a claim-of-right defense because Iowa’s claim-of-right statute applies to theft, not burglary, and the defense was not legally available.

## Legal Principles

- Iowa sentencing statutes and rules do not require a written sentencing order to specify a calculation of jail-time credit; credit may be handled without a judicial accounting.
- Ineffective assistance requires proof that counsel breached an essential duty and that prejudice resulted (a reasonable probability of a different outcome absent the error).
- Counsel has no duty to pursue a defense that is not recognized or is legally inapplicable.
- Iowa Code § 714.4’s claim-of-right defense is limited by its text to theft offenses and does not extend to burglary.
- Iowa public policy disfavors forcible self-help to recover property, and courts are reluctant to recognize claim-of-right theories for crimes involving force or invasion of a residence.

## Conclusion

The Iowa Court of Appeals affirmed Miller’s burglary sentence, ruling that a sentencing order need not state a specific jail-time-credit calculation and that counsel was not ineffective for omitting a claim-of-right defense because the statutory defense applies to theft, not burglary, and could not have changed the outcome.


State v. Miller, 622 N.W.2d 782 (Iowa Ct. App. 2000)