Des Moines, Iowa — A Hawarden man who was sentenced to prison after pleading guilty to child endangerment charges, and then appealed, has been re-sentenced to the same amount of prison time.
Matthew Spaans, along with his wife, Nina, each pled guilty to four counts of Child Endangerment in Sioux County District Court. According to the Sioux County Attorney’s Office, the prosecution had recommended that the couple each be sentenced to a four-year prison term. Although Judge Tod Deck followed that recommendation for Matthew Spaans, Spaans’ wife received a suspended sentence, allowing her to serve a period of probation with the possibility that she resides at the residential treatment facility in Sioux City, as determined by her probation officer.
Sioux County Attorney Thomas Kunstle said the sentences stemmed from a case that arose in February 2017 when the couple’s children began telling authorities that various injuries they had received over the last two and a half years were inflicted by Matthew Spaans. Kunstle says that all children were removed from the couple’s home at that time. Court records indicate Spaans beat his son with a 56-inch sword and his hands.
Spaans contended that he received ineffective assistance of counsel when his plea counsel failed to object to the State’s alleged breach of the plea agreement. The Iowa Court of Appeals said that since Spaans was not pleading guilty to any counts involving bodily injury, and only child endangerment, that the sentence should not have referenced the injuries.
In their opinion, they stated, “The district court’s reference to the injuries during the imposition of the sentences requires us to vacate the defendant’s sentences and remand the case to the district court for resentencing before a different judge consistent with this opinion.”
On Monday, District Judge Jeffrey Poulson sentenced Spaans to the same four-year prison term to which he was sentenced over a year ago, in April 2018. Court documents say Spaans has again appealed the ruling, this time to the Iowa Supreme Court.
