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Farmington• A former staffer for Gov. Gary Herbert was sentenced Tuesday to 15 years to life in prison for sexually abusing two young girls.
Stephen John Coleman, 40, pleaded guilty last month to one count of attempted sodomy on a child and one count of aggravated sexual abuse of a child, both first-degree felonies.
Seven other felony charges against the Bountiful man were dismissed as part of the plea agreement.
"I would prefer the death penalty," Coleman told 2nd District Judge Glen Dawson during his sentencing hearing.
Prosecutors said Coleman abused the girls, ages 8 and 11, for at least two years. "I don't think we'll ever really know" how long it went on, said prosecutor Cristina Ortega.
The victims' mother said her oldest daughter should "only be concerned with cell phones, friends and what to wear the first day [of school]. Instead she has thought very little of these things."
The woman added, "He has robbed both girls of their innocence."
Coleman began working as a planning and budget analyst in the Governor's Office in September 2009. He was fired April 14, according to the Department of Human Resource Management.
Defense attorney Julie George said Coleman "from day one, has expressed extreme remorse." But George acknowledged that the judge was bound by a mandatory minimum sentence for Coleman's crimes.
Dawson ordered that the sentences run concurrently.