Parolee sentenced to additional 15 years in prison

     On April 21, Matthew Allen Bakalar of Kellogg, Iowa, was sentenced in Jones County district Court to serve two concurrent indeterminate 15-year prison terms for offenses of forgery and possession of methamphetamine 3^rd offense, with both terms having been subject to a habitual offender enhancement due to Bakalar’s prior criminal convictions for at least two felony offenses.

   On Feb. 14, 2025, Bakalar traveled to Jones County and attempted to purchase a vehicle with counterfeit cash. Upon his arrest, it was also discovered that he was in possession of a significant amount of methamphetamine. Records reflect that Bakalar had been previously sentenced to serve three five-year prison sentences between two Jasper County cases on Feb. 21, 2022, with one of these sentences being consecutive for a total indeterminate sentence of 10 years in prison. Records further reflect that Bakalar was released on these sentences to parole just over a year later in April or May of 2023. Bakalar was then convicted of a new felony offense in a separate Jasper County case on March 29, 2024, and was granted a suspended five-year prison sentence and placed on probation despite having been on parole when that offense was committed. Bakalar was then released from county jail on April 3, 2024, and quickly absconded from his probation and parole supervision on April 6, 2024. He remained at-large until arrested by Jones County Sheriff and Anamosa Police Department officers in Jones County on Feb. 14, 2025.

   Pursuant to a change in the law that went into effect on July 1, 2024, the habitual offender enhancement imposed in this case will ensure that Bakalar will have to serve at least three years in prison before being eligible for parole and will not receive any good-time credit during that mandatory minimum sentence. His Jones County sentences will also run consecutively to all prior sentences for which he was on parole at the time this offense occurred.

   Assistant Jones County Attorney Sara Smith successfully prosecuted this case on behalf of the State of Iowa.