by Fred Gough ~ Hutch Post

The sentencing for a 25-year-old Hutchinson man charged in a child sex case was sentenced to life as expected. That was the sentence handed down by Senior Judge William Buck Lyle for Michael Sherman.

He was charged back in early December after he reported to police that he sexually abused his own infant child. He admitted that he was alone with the child and was watching pornography on his cell phone, then sodomized the child. He reportedly visited two porn websites using a smart phone.

Sherman entered a guilty plea before Judge Tim Chambers to aggravated criminal sodomy

The defense first argued that Jessica’s Law is unconstitutional and the judge found that it was, and they then argued for a departure from the Jessica’s Law and ask for a much smaller amount of time in prison. Judge Lyle admitted that this was his first sentencing since Jessica’s Law was implemented but found there were no substantial or compelling reasons to depart. He sentenced Sherman to the life term.

Both families spoke about what he had done. The grandfather of the child all but crawled out of the court gallery and attack the defendant, telling him he is lucky he can’t get to him. He asked the defendant, “how could you do this to your own child?”

The mother of the child wanted her former husband to get the maximum for what he did, while his family asking for relief from the life sentence saying “God” had forgiven him so the court should show some mercy.

Sherman declined to speak, however as he was being escorted from the courtroom, he turned to what used to be his family and told them “I’m Sorry.”