Thompson v. State
Annotate this CaseAfter an investigation, police learned that Defendant, a band teacher, had sexual relations with three students at Rock Springs High School. The State charged Defendant with a total of fifteen counts of sexual abuse of a minor. Pursuant to a plea deal, Defendant pleaded guilty to three counts, and the State dismissed the remaining charges. At the sentencing hearing, several students, including two of the victims, testified on Defendant’s behalf. The district court sentenced Defendant to a fifteen to twenty-five-year sentence for one count of sexual abuse of a minor in the first degree, to be served concurrently with the sentences imposed on the other counts. The Supreme Court affirmed, holding that the district court (1) properly exercised its discretion in sentencing Defendant and in considering statements made by the victims as aggravating rather than mitigating; and (2) did not violate Defendant’s due process rights when it recessed his sentencing hearing and continued it to the next day.
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