State v. Garcia

The dispute in this case arises from the legislature’s enlargement of the time period reviewed for determining the number of prior operating-while-intoxicated (OWI) offenses to be attributed to a defendant for sentencing purposes. See 1997 Iowa Acts ch. 177, § 4 (codified at Iowa Code § 321J.2(4)(a) (Supp.1997)). After June 30, 1997, this window was extended from six years to twelve years so that currently any OWI conviction or deferred judgment that occurred within the previous twelve years, counts as a prior offense. See Iowa Code §§ 321.12, 321J.2(4)(a), (b) (Supp.1997).

The defendant,…