Former BYU-Idaho student fighting sentence for rape of teenage girl
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REXBURG — A former Brigham Young University-Idaho student sent to prison for raping a teenage girl is fighting his sentence.
Defense attorney Kristopher Meek appeared in the Madison County Court on Monday on behalf of Connor Hammond, 22, who is serving time at the Idaho State Correctional Institution. Meek asked District Judge Steven Boyce to reduce Hammond’s four- to 10-year prison sentence for felony rape and two counts of felony lewd conduct. Hammond engaged in a sexual relationship with a 14-year-old girl in January and February 2019, according to court documents.
At Hammond’s September 2019 sentencing, Madison County Prosecuting Attorney Rob Wood presented a psychosexual evaluation and coinciding polygraph as evidence to Hammond’s character and prior sexual activity with minors. The initial polygraph showed deception, which prompted Meek and the defense team to hire Boise-based polygrapher Dale Rogers to conduct their own. Rogers testified at Monday’s hearing.
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Rogers told the court concerns arose in how the initial polygrapher conducted the exam. He said in the initial polygraph, Madison County Sheriff’s deputies shackled Hammond to the wall, creating unneeded anxiety during the test. He also said the answers that were marked as deceptive were not looked into properly and needed more a detailed examination, which he conducted in January.
In the initial polygraph, Hammond said he did not view pornography of a minor; however, he gave a different response in the January exam. In that exam, he disclosed that while 18, he received pornographic images of a minor in addition to sending explicit photos himself. Although Rogers said the second polygraph showed no deception, Wood said the results show Hammond did, in fact, not give accurate information in the initial exam.
Blair Gardner, the psychosexual evaluator in Hammond’s case, also testified in court Monday. He mentioned how the evaluation determined Hammond as a low risk to reoffend. He told the court Hammond’s knowledge of age-appropriate sexual anatomy and behavior as relatively poor. Gardner also called Hammond’s social abilities as immature for a man of his age, closer to that of a teenager.
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In the evaluation, Meek mentioned this as a reason prison was not the place for Hammond. He said Hammond surrounded by men with varying levels of sexual maturity was harmful to his client’s rehabilitation.
“My concern is we potentially make him worse,” Meek said.
With that, Meek asked Boyce to consider resentencing Hammond to probation and allow him to return to his family home in Oregon. The prosecution did not agree.
“I’m asking the court to maintain justice,” Wood said. “Lessening the sentence would be a lack of justice.”
Wood said justice would not be obtained for the other four possible minor victims, one of whom he met while she was 13 years old. Wood said Hammond did not give full names or locations of these girls. He called Hammond a predator in court because of this behavior.
“He knew what he did was wrong, and he did it anyway,” Wood said.
Boyce did not give a ruling for Hammond’s sentencing but did say he would think about it and write an opinion. Until then, Hammond will remain in the custody of the Idaho Department of Correction.