Cedar Rapids man takes similar plea deal after first conviction was overturned by appeal

CEDAR RAPIDS - A Cedar Rapids man convicted of extortion in 2016 won an appeal in July to have his conviction tossed out based on a technicality, but he ended up pleading guilty to the same charge Wednesday in Linn County District Court.

Dennis McKinney, 37, pleaded guilty to extortion, which carries a five-year prison sentence, but a plea agreement gave him a suspended sentence and two years of supervised probation, instead of more prison time. McKinney, who already had served four months in jail and one year in prison, also will receive credit for time served.

First Assistant Linn County Attorney Nick Maybanks filed a motion to reinstate the original second-degree robbery charge, along with extortion, against McKinney, since the conviction was overturned. However, Maybanks withdrew his motion Wednesday after McKinney's lawyer said his client was willing to again plead guilty to the extortion charge.

During Wednesday's plea hearing, McKinney admitted to threatening physical injury to a woman if she didn't give him money he thought he was owed. McKinney said he went to her home and it started out as an argument but it 'escalated” and he threatened her.

McKinney's first conviction was overturned because his guilty plea wasn't 'voluntarily and knowingly entered” based on the fact the judge didn't make McKinney aware of the maximum penalty he could face - the maximum fine plus the 35 percent surcharge, according to the Iowa Court of Appeals ruling.

During Wednesday's hearing, 6th Judicial District Judge Mitchell Turner accepted McKinney's plea after going over the maximum penalties, including the maximum fine with the 35 percent surcharge. He sentenced McKinney to the five years suspended sentence and two years supervised probation.

Maybanks said after the hearing that this kind of appeal doesn't come up much where a conviction is reversed on a technicality. He offered the plea again because McKinney was willing and he already had served more than a year and probably wouldn't have spent much more time in prison before being paroled.

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