By Tracie Sullivan, For Iron County Today
A 5th District Court judge this week issued the harshest penalty allowed under Utah law for a child-sex crime, recommending the defendant never be released from prison.
Judge Matthew Bell imposed a sentence of 15 years to life on Dylan Christian Stubbs, 30, who was convicted in June of sexually abusing a six-year-old girl at an in-home daycare in Parowan.
The case returned to court after months of post-trial motions and a failed attempt by the defense to overturn the jury’s verdict.
“These are difficult and sad cases,” Bell said. “Given the history of repeated instances of sexually victimizing children and the defendant’s failure to take accountability, he presents an extreme and unmanageable risk to the community. Therefore, this court will recommend that the defendant never be released.”
Prosecutor Shane Klenk urged the court to impose the maximum sentence, outlining what he described as a long pattern of predatory behavior that continues to pose a serious risk.
“The defendant is incredibly sexually deviant, and has been since a very young age,” he said. “This extreme deviancy is amplified by a complete lack of empathy or remorse, an insatiable desire to perpetrate on any child he has access to, and a keen ability to manipulate vulnerable victims, trusted adults and even the therapists meant to rehabilitate him.”
Klenk outlined what he called an “incalculable wake of destruction,” beginning when Stubbs was a juvenile.
He reminded the court that during trial, Stubbs’s own mother testified that he “did not feel any remorse and he would never stop.” She also described seeing a handwritten list her son created, naming dozens of children he had victimized.
“He boasted that it would not matter because he was a juvenile and there would not be serious consequences,” he said. “She was absolutely correct about his lack of remorse, and she was absolutely correct that he would never stop.”
Klenk said the girl at the center of the case, now fourteen, and her family made choices that changed the course of the investigation and likely prevented further harm.
“But for the courage of the victim and her family in this case, the defendant would be free and he would still be victimizing,” he said. “Our community owes them a tremendous debt of gratitude.”
Several individuals who were abused as children by Stubbs in earlier years also testified during the June trial. Klenk said their willingness to return to traumatic memories played a crucial role in establishing the pattern necessary for the jury to understand the full scope of the case.
“One voice became many,” he said. “They chose to participate and return to a chapter of their lives they never wished to revisit.”
The grandmother of one victim sat in the courtroom during sentencing. Klenk thanked her specifically, saying she was “instrumental” in bringing the case forward.
Defense attorney Sean Hullinger did not dispute the prison recommendation. He joined Adult Probation and Parole in asking the court to follow the mandatory sentence and noted that Stubbs is also facing a second, unrelated first-degree felony case involving sodomy on a child.
Because of that pending case, Hullinger said Stubbs would not make a statement.
Stubbs has remained in the Iron County Jail since his arrest in December 2021. Before trial, his attorneys filed a motion challenging Utah’s Rule 404(c), which allows jurors to hear evidence of uncharged acts in child-sex cases.
In that filing, they argued such defendants were treated like a “protected class” under discrimination laws, a comparison prosecutors sharply criticized.
After the conviction, Stubbs’s attorneys asked the court to overturn the jury’s verdict, claiming improper arguments in closing statements and constitutional violations.
Judge Meb Anderson, who inherited the case after the original judge retired, held a hearing on those issues in August and ultimately rejected the defense’s request.
In addition to the prison sentence, Bell imposed a maximum fine of $10,000 and a $53 court security fee. No restitution claims have been filed, but the court left the statutory window open.
Stubbs was remanded immediately to the Utah Department of Corrections.
His second case remains active. The court scheduled a WebEx hearing for March 4 at 1:45 p.m. to determine next steps in that matter.