SANDPOINT — The Idaho Court of Appeals is upholding the prison sentences imposed against a former Sandpoint man who was convicted of lewd conduct and child sex abuse charges in 2018.

First District Judge Barbara Buchanan ordered Steven Ronald Ennis Jr. to serve 20 years to life in prison on the lewd conduct charge. Buchanan further imposed concurrent 20- to 25-year terms on the sex abuse charges.

Ennis was accused of molesting the girl in 2014 and 2015, when she was between the ages of 11-12. The case against Ennis emerged in 2017, when Ennis was serving time in a California prison.

A Bonner County jury convicted Ennis of the offenses, despite taking him the stand to deny the charges and presenting alibi defense.

Jurors, however, found the alleged victim’s testimony more credible than that of Ennis, who directed taunting remarks toward the teen during the proceedings. The jury’s conviction triggered an addendum to the criminal complaint calling on the panel to render a special verdict in the case because he had been previously convicted of unlawful sex with a minor in California in 1995.

At sentencing, Buchanan said the convictions against Ennis cast doubt on whether it was possible he be rehabilitated and rejoin society.

Ennis appealed, arguing the district court abused its discretion by imposing excessive sentences.

The appeals court, however, was unmoved by the argument. It ruled that sentencing is a matter for the trial court’s discretion and the sentences comported with established case law.

“Applying these standards, and having reviewed the record in this case, we cannot say that the district court abused its discretion,” Chief Judge Molly Huskey, and judges David Gratton and Jessica Lorello said in an unpublished opinion filed on Thursday.

Ennis, 56, is serving his sentences at the Idaho State Correctional Center, a Boise-area lockup for close-custody offenders, according to the Idaho Department of Correction.

Keith Kinnaird can be reached by email at kkinnaird@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow him on Twitter @KeithDailyBee.