Sattler sentence unchanged despite request for leniency after 2012 CSC plea
BRANCH COUNTY — John Paul Sattler thought a second appeal might reduce his April 2012 life sentence further than a 2014 change ordered by the Michigan Court of Appeal.
Tuesday, Circuit Judge Bill O'Grady quashed those hopes, imposing the same 18 years and nine months to 50 years administratively changed in 2014 after the appellate court ruled sentencing guidelines required a minimum and maximum sentence with life only in capital cases.
The new sentence came Tuesday with Sattler in the Coldwater courtroom. Sattler filed his second appeal last year after learning he had the constitutional right to be in the courtroom when resentenced without an on-the-record waiver of that right.
Sattler pleaded no contest to two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct in 2012.
Prior story Sattler's life sentence vacated
In 2011, investigators said Sattler and his girlfriend had sex with a 14-year-old girl after the couple got her high on marijuana. Another 14-year-old told Coldwater police the couple gave her pills that made her immobile after the fireworks at Heritage Park before the couple had sex with her.
Sattler denied the charges until a rape test kit matched his DNA.
Sattler asked for a reduction in his sentence on Tuesday. "I'm not asking for a complete release; I'm just asking for leniency," he said.
Sattler said he worked at rehabilitation rather than just serving his time. "I've taken 90 classes. None of them were mandatory. I facilitate three substance abuse classes a week. I head the church. I'm a core member of the National Lifers."
Sattler graduated from Jackson Community College with high honors in 2023 as a Phi Beta Kappa Society member. He told the judge he plans to obtain his bachelor's degree in business.
The judge congratulated Sattler for successfully using his prison time to better himself.
O'Grady told Sattler, "You do have a constitutional right to be in the courtroom, that has been corrected. That does not change what happened during that crime."
The judge said, "A sentence pursuant to law is punishment, protection of society, deterrence, as well as rehabilitation."
In his first appeal, the justices wrote that Sattler would have been better off with a life sentence "because a person sentenced to life can be considered for parole after only 10 years."
Subscribe Support local news. Subscribe to the Daily Reporter.
His earliest parole release is April 2030.
Sattler already filed another motion to appeal. He claimed he was not given enough time to confer with the public defender before his resentencing.
— Contact Don Reid: dReid@Gannett.com
This article originally appeared on Coldwater Daily Reporter: John Sattler wanted leniency but sentenced unchanged in 2012 case
