State v. Corry, 558 P.3d 128

Austin James Corry, an assistant fire chief, pled guilty to four counts of forcible sexual abuse of a female subordinate, Vicky, after a plea deal that dismissed several additional charges and a pending rape case against another alleged victim.
The abuse occurred over three years, involved repeated unwanted sexual advances and assaults, and was documented by the victim through recordings due to unhelpful prior reporting.
Adult Probation and Parole (AP&P) recommended a prison sentence, deviating from Utah’s sentencing guidelines, which suggested up to 210 days in jail (a period Corry had already exceeded in pretrial detention).
At sentencing, Corry's counsel vaguely objected to the presentence report’s contents and AP&P’s recommendation but failed to specify any alleged inaccuracies.
The district court sentenced Corry to concurrent terms of 1–15 years in prison, citing aggravating factors and lack of accountability, and recommended credit for time served.
On appeal, Corry challenged the sentence, aspects of the presentence report, consideration of his lack of treatment, and alleged ineffective assistance of counsel for failing to submit additional character evidence.

Issue	Corry’s Argument	State’s Argument	Held
Court’s duty to resolve inaccuracies in presentence report	Court failed to resolve alleged inaccuracies; report was flawed	No specific inaccuracies identified by Corry; only vague objections	No error—failure to specify inaccuracies is a waiver
Use of lack of treatment as an aggravating factor	Should not be used as aggravating; lack of treatment due to external factors	Lack of treatment demonstrates lack of rehabilitation; proper to consider	No plain error; lack of prejudice, not outcome-determinative
Abuse of discretion in imposing prison sentence	No reasonable judge would have imposed prison over probation given guidelines	Aggravating factors, abuse of authority, harm to victim justified deviation	No abuse of discretion; sentence affirmed
Ineffective assistance: failure to submit additional character letters	Absence of other supportive letters prejudiced outcome	Additional letters would not have altered focus on seriousness of crimes	No prejudice shown; motion denied

State v. Maroney, 94 P.3d 295 (Utah Ct. App. 2004) (sets standard for resolving inaccurate presentence reports)
State v. Jaeger, 973 P.2d 404 (Utah 1999) (explains requirement to specify objections to presentence reports)
State v. Scott, 400 P.3d 1172 (Utah Ct. App. 2017) (articulates abuse of discretion standard in sentencing)
State v. Martin, 423 P.3d 1254 (Utah 2017) (notes appellate deference to district court sentencing decisions)
State v. Killpack, 191 P.3d 17 (Utah 2008) (discusses district courts’ proximity to credibility and sentencing factors)