Ten years in prison followed by five years of probation will be the sentence handed down to a Sierra Vista man who recently pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual misconduct involving a 14-year-old girl last summer.
On Friday, Andrew Ryan Courtney will stand before Judge Timothy Dickerson of the Cochise County Superior Court for formal sentencing, but the terms of his imprisonment and probation were already negotiated last month between the Cochise County Attorney’s Office and defense attorney Perry Hicks.
According to a plea deal, Courtney must also register as a sex offender after pleading guilty to attempted molestation of a child as well as attempted sexual conduct with a minor. Both offenses as Class 3 felonies and occurred with the same victim in July 2020.
Courtney, then 23, was arrested by detectives with the Sierra Vista Police Department after the girl’s mother found him hiding in her daughter’s closet. Courtney was only wearing the girl’s underwear and one shoe as he ran from the girl’s apartment, according to the police report.
Detectives later seized evidence from Courtney’s car, as well as his and the girl’s phone to confirm an inappropriate relationship between the two. Courtney was later released from the Cochise County jail to await trial, but he was taken back into custody in April on four felony counts of aggravated assault after being identified by the Chandler Police Department as a suspect in the stabbing of several young men at the Chandler Fashion Center on March 12.
It is unclear whether Courtney will be headed straight to prison after Friday’s hearing or if he will serve the beginning of his Cochise County sentence at the Maricopa County jail while awaiting trial in the stabbing case. A review hearing is set for Sept. 1 at the Maricopa County Superior Court in advance of his trial starting Dec. 2.
Courtney’s plea deal in the molestation case contains a provision that the prison sentence can run concurrently -at the same time- as any sentence imposed in the stabbing case. However, the Maricopa County judge has the option of ordering the sentences to run back-to-back, meaning Courtney would serve more than 10 years in prison.