Despite appeal, judge won’t budge from 65-year sentence

On appeal, Michael Kenneth Cox of Walhalla returned with his attorney to court this afternoon, in the hope that Judge Lawton McIntosh would reduce the 65-year prison sentence issued last week for the crime of criminal sexual conduct with a minor under the age of 11 years old.  But, to no avail, McIntosh held firm to his original ruling.  Cox, in prison attire and shackled, stood beside his attorney, Bruce Byrholdt, heard the judge say that 65 years is “absolutely appropriate.”  McIntosh registered his disappointment that while Cox admitted his crime, he showed no remorse.  And the judge was especially critical of Cox for the defendant’s admission that he thought, given the victim’s young age, the victim would not remember being raped.  Byrholdt told the judge that his client, 30 years old, would be unlikely to survive a 65-year sentence in the state system and he appealed to reduce the sentence from 65 years to a range of 25 to 60 years.  The defense still has the option of filing a further appeal.