It seems there may be no end in sight for the Iowa District Court for Carroll County in the appeals process for a Carroll man convicted of second-degree sexual abuse. On Monday, Nov. 30, the court held a hearing via Zoom with 29-year-old Jesse Raymond Neitzel, his counsel, Arielle Lipman and Carroll County Attorney, John Werden, who appeared on behalf of the State of Iowa. In March of this year, Neitzel filed yet another application for postconviction relief on the grounds of ineffective assistance of trial, appellate and postconviction counsel, that he should have been tried as a juvenile along with a “freestanding actual innocence claim.” Werden was seeking a summary dismissal on the grounds that there is a three-year limitation on postconviction proceedings and no documents, exhibits or records were filed with Neitzel’s application. After the court reviewed the numerous other appeals and applications for postconviction relief, it was determined that the legality of this conviction by a jury and the sentence handed down have already been addressed and the application was dismissed with the costs assessed to Neitzel. He will be serving the minimum 17.5 years of a 25-year sentence. Neitzel was tried on the class B felony charge for the sexual abuse of a seven-year-old child in August of 2007. He was 16 years old at the time of the crime and 19 years old in 2010 when he was sentenced.
