State of Idaho v. Timothy Jon Gutierrez

── State of Idaho v. Timothy Jon Gutierrez ── Court: Idaho Supreme Court Date: May 12, 2026 Category: General IN THE SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF IDAHO Docket No. 51649 STATE OF IDAHO, ) ) Plaintiff-Respondent, ) Boise, February 2026 Term ) v. ) Opinion filed: May 12, 2026 ) TIMOTHY JON GUTIERREZ, ) Melanie Gagnepain, Clerk ) Defendant-Appellant. ) ) Appeal from the District Court of the First Judicial District of the State of Idaho, Kootenai County. John T. Mitchell, District Judge. The judgment of the district court is affirmed. Erik R. Lehtinen, State Appellate Public Defender, Boise, for Appellant. Kierra W. Mai argued. Raúl R. Labrador, Idaho Attorney General, Boise, for Respondent. T. Michael MacEagan argued. _____________________________________________ BEVAN, Chief Justice. This appeal concerns the district court’s denial of an oral motion to continue a sentencing hearing and its imposition of a fixed life sentence on the defendant. In exchange for the dismissal of six counts, Timothy Jon Gutierrez pleaded guilty to one count of lewd conduct, two counts of possession of sexually exploitative material, and one count of injury to a child. At the sentencing hearing, Gutierrez asked to continue the hearing until the psychosexual evaluation and polygraph examination were completed and submitted to the court for consideration. Ruling from the bench, the district court denied the continuance. The court then sentenced Gutierrez to a fixed life sentence for Lewd Conduct with a Minor Under Sixteen, as well as three fixed, ten-year sentences for the remaining counts, with each sentence running concurrently with the others. For the reasons explained below, we affirm. I. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND The victim in the underlying criminal case is Gutierrez’s daughter. She was 13 years old when a school counselor first approached her with concerns about inappropriate relations between 1 her and Gutierrez based on an anonymous report. Three months later, in December 2022, a parent of one of daughter’s classmates contacted her school when he saw a text message on his son’s phone that claimed Gutierrez was having sex with daughter. Based on the text message, a caseworker from the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare (“IDHW”) and a detective from the Rathdrum Police Department (“RPD”) interviewed daughter. She did not confirm abuse by Gutierrez but “had a visible reaction” when asked if Gutierrez was “hurting her.” During a home visit on March 3, 2023, a detective secured confirmation from daughter’s grandfather’s girlfriend that daughter and Gutierrez were sleeping in the same bed. The girlfriend also explained that she believed Gutierrez was selling drugs out of the home and that she found pills, spermicide, and a pregnancy test in his room. Daughter told the officer that Gutierrez smoked “blue pills” in front of her. On February 28, 2023, a few days before the home visit, Gutierrez was arrested during a traffic stop for possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver and possession of a controlled substance. He admitted the pills in his possession were fentanyl. At the time, Gutierrez was on felony probation for two cases in which he had been convicted of (1) felony attempt to flee/elude police in 2019 and (2) possession of a controlled substance in 2022. During a search of Gutierrez’s cell phone, police found images of suspected child sexual abuse materi