Greggory Lloyd Lobato v. State of Iowa

IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF IOWA
_______________

No. 25-0753
Filed April 15, 2026
_______________

Greggory Lloyd Lobato,
Applicant–Appellant,
v.
State of Iowa,
Respondent–Appellee.
_______________

Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Monona County,
The Honorable Jeffrey A. Neary, Judge.
_______________

AFFIRMED
_______________

Tiffany Kragnes, West Des Moines, attorney for appellant.

Brenna Bird, Attorney General, and Timothy M. Hau, Assistant Attorney
General, attorneys for appellee.
_______________

Considered without oral argument
by Tabor, C.J., Langholz, J., and Telleen, S.J.
Opinion by Langholz, J.

1
LANGHOLZ, Judge.

A jury convicted Greggory Lobato of domestic-abuse assault, third
offense—a class “D” felony. See Iowa Code § 708.2A(1), (4) (2022). He then
pleaded guilty to a second charge of domestic-abuse assault, third offense, for
another incident with the same victim as part of a global plea agreement
negotiated by his same defense counsel. He did not appeal his convictions.
Instead, he applied for postconviction relief, arguing that his counsel was
ineffective throughout the representation. And after a short bench trial at
which Lobato called only one witness—himself—the district court found
that Lobato failed to prove his ineffective-assistance-of-counsel claims and
denied him postconviction relief.

Lobato now appeals. But on our de novo review, we agree with the
district court that Lobato has failed to show that his counsel breached any
essential duty. So his ineffective-assistance-of-counsel claims fail. See Smith
v. State, 7 N.W.3d 723, 725–26 (Iowa 2024); Sothman v. State,
967 N.W.2d 512, 522–23 (Iowa 2021). Because a full opinion would neither
give the parties better reasoning than they have already received from the
district court nor advance development of the law, we affirm with this
memorandum opinion. See Iowa Ct. R. 21.26(1)(d), (e).

AFFIRMED.

2