This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
The Utah Court of Appeals has denied Martin MacNeill's appeal of his felony forcible sexual abuse conviction, upholding the original 4th District Court decision.
MacNeill was convicted of second-degree forcible sexual abuse of his adult daughter in 2014. It followed the former Pleasant Grove doctor's highly publicized 2013 conviction on first-degree murder charges in the 2007 death of his wife.
MacNeill will not be eligible for a parole hearing until August 2052, when he will be 96 years old.
MacNeill appealed the abuse conviction earlier this year and appealed the murder conviction in 2015. The Utah Court of Appeals has not yet heard oral arguments on the murder appeal.
The denial of the forcible sexual abuse appeal, released late Friday, was penned by Judge J. Frederic Voros.
In his argument before the appellate court, MacNeill argued that the district court "abused its discretion in denying his motion to change venue;" that his counsel was "ineffective" for not objecting when his daughter, Alexis Somers, said in her testimony that she believed MacNeill murdered her mother; and that the delays in his case violated his right to a speedy trial.
The Tribune generally does not identify victims of sexual abuse, but Somers agreed to be named, saying she felt it was important to come forward and publicly "fight for truth and justice."
In denying the appeal, Voros found that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in denying MacNeill's motion to change venue because he "passed the jury for cause" at the time of the trial and "has not alleged any actual bias on the part of the jurors who actually sat."
Though MacNeill said his defense attorney should have objected when Somers gave "inflammatory and prejudicial testimony," Voros wrote that there was "a conceivable tactical basis for counsel's actions," and the defense attorney tried to use Somers' testimony that she believed MacNeill killed her mother to show Somers had a motive for lying about the sex abuse.
The tactic failed to convince the jury, but Voros wrote that the "counsel's strategy was reasonable."
MacNeill's third complaint regarding his right to a speedy trial is one he has submitted in the past. But according to Voros, both times MacNeill "failed to discuss the length of and reason for each circumstance of delay," and the appellate court "similarly" concluded MacNeill's claim was inadequately briefed.
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