State v. Davis

1

STATE OF IOWA, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. MATTHEW JAMES DAVIS, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 22-0827

Court of Appeals of Iowa

May 24, 2023

Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Webster County, Thomas J Bice, Judge.

Matthew Davis appeals his convictions and the sentences imposed for two counts of third-degree sexual abuse and two counts of incest. AFFIRMED.

Martha J. Lucey, State Appellate Defender, and Shellie L. Knipfer Assistant Appellate Defender, for appellant.

Brenna Bird, Attorney General, and Zachary Miller, Assistant Attorney General, for appellee.

Considered by Bower, C.J., and Tabor and Greer, JJ.

BOWER CHIEF JUDGE

Matthew Davis appeals his convictions and the sentences imposed for two counts of third-degree sexual abuse and two counts of incest.^[1] He contends the trial court abused its discretion in overruling his objection to allowing his wife Patti, to testify about having been sexually abused as a child. He maintains the verdicts are not supported by sufficient evidence and are contrary to the weight of the evidence. Davis also asserts the court abused its discretion in imposing consecutive sentences. We affirm.

I. Background Facts and proceedings.

At trial, the jury heard the audio recording of a September 27, 2021 interview with Davis by Larry Hedlund at Davis's workplace.^[2] Hedlund summarized the interview, noting Davis "made admissions to having oral sex with his daughter [L.] He made admissions to having his fingers inside of his daughter [L.'s] vagina. He made partial admissions to sexual intercourse with his daughter [L.]" Hedlund testified Davis was arrested after that interview.

L. testified at trial that she moved in with her father and Patti the summer of 2019, before her freshman year of high school started. Prior to moving, L. had lived with her mother, Heather, in a different town, and her relationship with Davis was a "typical father-daughter relationship." But that changed a couple months after she moved in with Davis. L. testified Davis began telling her about sexual terms "to help you and make you learn about it." He showed her pornography and later began engaging in sex acts with her. The prosecutor and L. had this exchange:

Q. Can you tell me where [Davis's] penis has been in your body?

A. My mouth, my vagina, and my butt.

Q. Okay. Has your mouth ever been anywhere on his body?

A. Yes.

Q. Can you tell me about that?

A. His penis.

Q. Okay. Has his mouth ever been anywhere else on your body?

A. Yes.

Q. Can you tell me about that?

A. All over.... My mouth, my boobs, my vagina.

Q. So he's had his mouth on your vagina?

A. Yes.

Q. Has he ever digitally penetrated you?

A. Yes.

Q. And by that, I mean your fingers?

A. Yes.

Q. Where did he put his fingers?

A. In my vagina.

Q. Anywhere else?

A. No.

When asked how many times this occurred, she responded, "Probably about a hundred." After additional questioning, L. testified she could not remember precise dates "because it happened so much that they all blur together," but she was "positive" it started her freshman year of high school.

L. testified the first time Davis moved beyond showing her pornography was at the end of her freshman year-she was fourteen. She testified Davis followed her into the basement where she was doing laundry. He grabbed a blanket and undressed. When L. tried to go upstairs, Davis blocked her. He then kissed her, got her on the floor, took her pants off, and placed his finger in her vagina. He stopped when he heard noise upstairs and told L. that if she told Patti or called the police, "he would make sure [her] life was hell."

L., who was involved in a number of sports, testified Davis started to join in her at-home workouts, but "his workouts were different than workouts.... Workouts are sit-ups and push-ups. To him, workouts meant a code word for let me do anything I want to." She testified these "workouts" occurred in the living room after other family members went to bed:

A. He would do a couple of sit-ups and push-ups and then he would move closer to me when I was doing mine, and then just start touching and be, like, I'll just give you some rubs or massages. And then that's when he would do things.

Q. What things would he do, [L.]

A. Rub his fingers through my vagina and then just go from there.

Q. Okay. I'm going to ask you to explain "go from there."

A. Put his fingers inside me, and then he would try to take my pants off. And then he would kiss my breasts and then go inside of me more.

Q. What would he use to go inside you?

A. His fingers or his penis.

When L. would resist and tell him his conduct was inappropriate, he would say, "It's benefitting you, and [i]t's to help you learn, [i]t's only weird if you make it weird." She testified Davis engaged in sex acts with her at the residence and at the shop at Davis's business. L. knew the date Davis had a vasectomy in March 2020 and testified his sexual conduct towards her increased afterwards. She testified that after his vasectomy, Davis showed her "[a] bunch of toys that looked like penises in different shapes and sizes," selected one, and then inserted it into her vagina. She testified this happened on two occasions. When shown a picture of a number of the devices found at the home, she testified Davis had used the "purple one."

On September 23, 2021,^[3] L. told Patti that Davis had been sexually abusing her and "I told her that he got inside of me all different ways and touched me inappropriately. And that's all I could get out that I can remember before he came down the stairs." L. remembered that later that night, "We were in the living room and I was watching a show, doing my workout, and then I know something happened because he was on top." She testified it was not just touching. L. could not remember exactly what happened though she stated it was more than just touching. She remembered going to a football game on Friday September 24, getting home late, and going directly to bed. On Saturday, L. went to friend's party, where she recalled Davis showed her a video "in front of a lot of people" of two gorillas having sex. L. testified that on Sunday, September 26, she and Patti had a talk and Patti said she was going to try to stay close. Later that evening, Davis asked L. to give him a massage. Knowing Patti was going to try to catch Davis, L. joined Davis, and ended up underneath him and Patti walked in and interrupted the situation.^[4] The following morning, September 27, Davis waylaid L. as she was going to school. L. testified she ended up on the floor with Davis saying, "Let me relieve myself from stress" and started trying to remove her pants. But she was able to get up and leave, while Davis had a "hissy fit." L. went to school and was in class when she was asked to go to the office, where she was met with a childabuse investigator.

Patti was called by the defense and testified the first time she heard L. accuse Davis was when they were in the basement on "[t]he Thursday before it was turned in" in September:

A. Yes. I kept saying, "Now what's really wrong."

Q. Okay. How many times do you think you said that before she said something different than the dog training?

A. I don't even know. I would like to say it was six.

Q. Okay. Then what did she say?

A. I can't tell you, I promised.

Q. And after that?

A. I said, "Promised who." She said, "Dad." And I said, "Well, now you got to tell me, honey."

Q. So what did she tell you?

A. She started crying and said, "He touches me." And I kind of looked at her in disbelief and was like, "He touches everybody." And she said, no, and it was either penis or dick has been in me numerous times.

Patti testified L. was not in agreement with Patti's idea that they needed to leave, L. begged her not to tell anybody because Davis "would take everything away from her. She didn't want people to know. She just wanted it to stop." Patti stated she planned to catch Davis in the act, get it on video, and get him out of the house. Then, "Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday is all a blur." She continued, "I know at one point I asked, 'Did anything happen.' I don't know if it was Friday or Monday. And I just remember, 'No, he tried, but I didn't let it,' but I can't tell you whether it was Friday or Monday." Patti testified about walking into her bedroom on Sunday and finding Davis with L. on the bed "between her legs." Patti testified she confronted Davis and he acted as if nothing had happened, and Davis told her to "cuddle with us." Patti also testified she tried to check on Davis and L. as they were working out that evening but L. ran to her and told her Davis could hear her on the stairs.

On cross-examination, the following exchange occurred between the prosecution and Patti:

Q. So let's talk about you and [L.]'s plan to catch Defendant. Why would you have to catch him? Why did you think you had to catch him?

A. Because otherwise, he would be able to justify it and tell me what I saw and tell me what to believe in. I believe it. It-

Q. Do you have anything in your history that would have made you arrive at that decision? I'm sorry to ask that.

A. It's okay.

The defense objected on relevance grounds. The trial court overruled the objection. Patti continued:

A. So growing up, me and my sister were sexually abused by a neighbor kid. And he got away with it for a long time. And he had stopped touching me when I was, like, [eleven]. Well, I found out when I was [thirteen], that he didn't stop with my sister.

DEFENSE COUNSEL: Your Honor, I would renew my objection. It's also unduly prejudicial. It's not impeachment. It is-I believe the State's question is going to the state of mind of the witness at the time.

THE COURT: Your objection is noted. It is, again, overruled. The answer will

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