State of Iowa v. Jacob Dean Archer

IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF IOWA
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No. 24-1387
Filed April 1, 2026
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State of Iowa,
Plaintiff–Appellee,
v.
Jacob Dean Archer,
Defendant–Appellant.
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Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Guthrie County,
The Honorable Virginia Cobb, Judge.
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APPEAL DISMISSED
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Thomas Hurd of Hurd Law Firm PLC, Des Moines, attorney for appellant.

Brenna Bird, Attorney General, and Adam Kenworthy, Assistant Attorney
General, attorneys for appellee.
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Considered without oral argument
by Ahlers, P.J., and Chicchelly and Sandy, JJ.
Opinion by Ahlers, P.J.

1
AHLERS, Presiding Judge.

Pursuant to a plea agreement, Jacob Archer pleaded guilty to operating
while intoxicated (OWI), third or subsequent offense, and driving while
revoked. As part of the plea agreement, the parties agreed to jointly
recommend that Archer’s OWI sentence be ordered to be served
concurrently to the sentence he received for a prior OWI, third offense, in a
different county. The district court imposed the agreed-upon sentence.

Archer appeals. He contends that defects in the sentencing
proceeding in his OWI case in the other county somehow constitute a
sentencing error in this case due to the sentence here being ordered to be
served concurrently to that other sentence.1

Before considering the merits of Archer’s claim, we must first decide
whether we have jurisdiction over his appeal. Because he pleaded guilty to
an offense other than a class “A” felony, Archer must establish good cause to
appeal. See Iowa Code § 814.6(1)(a)(3) (2024). Appealing a sentence—as
Archer does here—constitutes good cause, but only if the sentence is
discretionary and neither mandatory nor agreed to as part of a plea
agreement. See State v. Damme, 944 N.W.2d 98, 105 (Iowa 2020). Archer
received the sentence he agreed to under the terms of his plea agreement.
Therefore, he has failed to establish good cause to appeal. See, e.g., State v.
Spencer, No. 23-0844, 2024 WL 3518267, at *1 (Iowa Ct. App. July 24, 2024).
As such, we do not have jurisdiction over his appeal, and we dismiss it. See
Iowa Code § 814.6(1)(a)(3).

APPEAL DISMISSED.

1
Archer’s claim of a sentencing defect in his other case was rejected on appeal.
See State v. Archer, No. 24-1305, 2025 WL 3654042, at *1 (Iowa Ct. App. Dec. 17, 2025).

2