## Facts

- Cory Alan Tesch, age 15, and two friends vandalized traffic-control devices protecting an active road construction site in Worth County, Iowa.
- A trench approximately ten feet deep and twenty-five feet wide spanned both lanes of a hard-surface county road.
- The site was protected by multiple barricades and fencing placed at and around the trench, including barricades positioned about a mile north and south and barricades with an orange construction fence immediately near the trench.
- The juveniles systematically disabled the warnings by knocking down barricades, destroying lights, removing flags, moving barricades, cutting attached fencing, and placing removed barriers in a ditch.
- In the early morning, a motorist drove into the unprotected trench and suffered severe injuries, including a skull-base spinal fracture requiring surgery, a dislocated hip with substantial damage, and serious complications during recovery.
- The State initiated juvenile delinquency proceedings alleging conduct constituting second-degree criminal mischief; the juvenile court waived jurisdiction to adult court after receiving evidence of the offense’s seriousness and Tesch’s prior misconduct and limited response to prior interventions.
- In adult court, Tesch was convicted of second-degree criminal mischief; an assault charge was dismissed without prejudice; he received a suspended sentence with conditions.

## Issues

1. Whether the juvenile court abused its discretion by waiving juvenile jurisdiction and transferring the case for adult prosecution under Iowa’s statutory waiver criteria.
2. Whether trial counsel rendered ineffective assistance at sentencing by failing to object to victim-impact statements from individuals who did not qualify as “victims” under Iowa Code § 915.10(3), and whether any failure caused prejudice.

## Decision

- The Iowa Supreme Court affirmed the waiver of juvenile jurisdiction, finding no abuse of discretion.
- The court affirmed the conviction and sentence for second-degree criminal mischief.
- Counsel was not ineffective for failing to object to the injured motorist’s victim-impact statement because the motorist qualified as a statutory victim.
- Although counsel should have objected to the victim-impact statement by the motorist’s wife, Tesch failed to show prejudice; therefore, the ineffective-assistance claim did not warrant relief.

## Legal Principles

- A juvenile waiver decision is reviewed for abuse of discretion; reversal requires reasons that are clearly untenable or unreasonable.
- In deciding waiver, the juvenile court may weigh the offense’s seriousness and circumstances, the juvenile’s prior history and response to prior interventions, rehabilitative prospects, and the time remaining under juvenile jurisdiction.
- Ineffective assistance requires proof of (1) deficient performance and (2) prejudice—a reasonable probability of a different outcome absent the error.
- Only persons meeting the statutory definition of “victim” under Iowa Code § 915.10(3) are entitled to provide victim-impact statements under the crime-victim rights statute; allowing a nonqualifying person to speak does not justify relief without a showing of prejudice.

## Conclusion

The court upheld adult prosecution of a 15-year-old based on the extreme danger created by disabling all construction warnings and evidence of limited rehabilitative prospects within juvenile jurisdiction, and it rejected a sentencing-based ineffective-assistance claim because the only arguable error—failure to object to a nonstatutory victim-impact statement—did not affect the suspended sentence imposed.


State v. Tesch, 704 N.W.2d 440 (Iowa 2005)