A Des Moines man serving life without parole plus 25 years for killing his ex-girlfriend's mother and shooting her father has lost his bid to overturn that sentence. The Iowa Court of Appeals upheld Hamza Smajlovic's punishment, rejecting his claims that prosecutors broke their plea agreement and that a judge wrongly stacked his sentences on top of each other.
According to KCCI, Smajlovic pleaded guilty to killing Ruth Robison and attempting to kill her husband, Tony Robison. The station reports the pleas were entered in 2024, though the Des Moines Register has reported the guilty pleas came later, on Oct. 27, 2025, the day jury selection was set to begin in his trial. Hoodline could not independently resolve the discrepancy between the two accounts.
Ruth and Tony Robison were shot while helping their daughter move out of the Des Moines home she had shared with Smajlovic, the same station's report notes. Ruth Robison died in the attack, while Tony Robison survived but was left with permanent injuries, according to the Des Moines Register. That paper reported the shooting happened Nov. 1, 2024, when Jasmyne Robison returned to the home with her parents to retrieve her belongings.
What Smajlovic Argued on Appeal
On appeal, Smajlovic argued that prosecutors breached the terms of his plea agreement and that the sentencing judge should not have ordered his sentences to run consecutively rather than at the same time, per the same KCCI account. The plea agreement recommended concurrent sentences.
The appeals court rejected both of Smajlovic's arguments. Judges found the plea agreement was not binding on the sentencing judge, the station's report states, meaning the court was free to impose a harsher outcome than what the agreement had recommended.
A Sentence That Stands
With the appeal denied, Smajlovic's sentence of life without parole plus an additional 25 years remains in place. The case closes out a chapter that began when a family errand to help a daughter move her things turned into a shooting that killed one parent and permanently injured the other.
