State v. Steele

LANSING, Judge.

This appeal challenges the unified life sentence with a twenty-five-year determinate term for sexual penetration by a foreign object, which was imposed upon a defendant who was fourteen years old at the time of the offense.

In October 2002, fourteen-year-old Joshua T. Steele, without apparent provocation, bludgeoned his grandmother to death with a hammer. While she was dead or dying, he partially unclothed her and inserted a finger into her vagina. Shortly thereafter, distraught over his actions, Steele attempted suicide by driving a car over a cliff, but was unsuccessful…