State of Utah, Plaintiff and Appellee v. Thomas Adison Shickles, Defendant and Appellant

Summary

The court reversed Shickles's child-kidnapping conviction and remanded for a new trial because the jury was not instructed, as requested, about the consequences of a not-guilty-by-reason-of-insanity verdict, and the prosecutor repeatedly misstated those consequences without adequate correction. The court upheld admission of evidence concerning Shickles's sexual conduct with the victim because, under the unusual facts, it was highly probative of intent and lack of a good-faith belief in parental permission. The court rejected his constitutional challenges to the mandatory sentencing scheme but held that the sentencing court was required to state its reasons for selecting the middle term. Justice Zimmerman, concurring, agreed with the result and sentencing-reasons holding but would have treated the prosecutor's misstatement alone as harmless while endorsing routine explanatory instructions on the alternative mental-illness verdicts.