Iowa Court of Appeals affirms child abuse sentence of Mason City man

MASON CITY — A Mason City man sentenced to ten years in prison after entering an Alford plea to a child sexual abuse charge has lost an appeal of his sentence.

36-year-old Charles Mimms was arrested in June of last year and charged with second-degree sexual abuse, a Class B felony punishable by up to 25 years in prison. A criminal complaint states that Mimms performed a sex act with a three-year-old child in Mason City on June 10th 2022.

Mimms originally pleaded not guilty to the second-degree sexual abuse charge, but as part of a plea agreement with prosecutors, entered an Alford plea last August to one count of lascivious acts with a child, a Class C felony. With an Alford plea, a person does not admit guilt but acknowledges there is enough evidence for a likely conviction.

District Judge Rustin Davenport sentenced Mimms to ten years in prison.

In challenging the court’s decision to not impose a suspended prison sentence, Mimms argued that the judge overlooked his extensive pretrial incarceration of 120 days and asserted that the court should have given more weight to other, less invasive options for rehabilitation.

The Iowa Court of Appeals on Wednesday affirmed the sentence, saying they found no abuse of discretion or defect in the sentencing procedure in the case.