Sentencing Hearing Held in District Court for Man Charged With Third Degree Sexual Abuse of a Minor

A sentencing hearing was held Thursday in 4th Judicial District Court in Sheridan for a man charged with sexual abuse of a minor. Sheridan Media’s Ron Richter has the details.

In August of last year, the Sheridan Police Department received a report of a sexual assault that had taken place at a hotel in Sheridan. A subsequent investigation led to the arrest of 21-year-old Zachary Standard for the charge of sexual abuse of a minor in the second degree. Standard pleaded not guilty to the charge at an arraignment hearing in October and then later changed his plea to guilty to an amended charge of sexual abuse of a minor in the third degree at a change of plea hearing.

According to the affidavit of probable cause, Standard, on August 6, 2021, traveled to Sheridan from Encampment to meet an underage girl at a hotel in Sheridan. The two had been messaging one another on the dating app Tinder. The messaging log confirmed that Standard was aware that the girl he had been communicating with and was arranging to meet in Sheridan was underage.

District Court Judge Darci Phillips accepted the terms of the plea agreement that was reached with the State and sentenced Standard to 4 to 6 years in prison, suspended in lieu of three years of supervised probation. Standard was given one-day credit for time served and was ordered to pay $325 in various court costs and $500 in public defender fees. Standard must also register as a convicted sex offender for at least 10 years.