CASPER — A former award-winning foster dad was sentenced in Natrona County District Court on Thursday to a maximum of 128 years in prison for sexually abusing two adopted daughters as well as physically abusing them and four other children in his care.
Natrona County District Court Judge Kerri Johnson imposed sentences on the 14 charges that involved sexual abuse of minors, child endangerment and battery that Steven Marler, 50, was convicted of by jury on April 22.
She made them all consecutive because Johnson said each victim deserved his or her own justice.
The sentencing hearing took place in a small, but packed, second-floor courtroom that held Marler’s family, witnesses and others. Media and others gathered for the hearing were placed in second courtroom with just an audio feed of the sentencing.
The judge heard from the mother of two of Marler’s male victims and two other mothers read statements from their daughters asking the judge for maximum punishment for the man who abused them.
The mother of one of the young women whom jurors had convicted in May on three sexual abuse charges described her daughter as “smart, beautiful and damaged.”
She read a statement from her daughter that said that Marler “took advantage” of her “eagerness to win your affection.”
She wrote that she forgave him, but that there was no point now in his “lying” about what happened.
“It’s between you and the creator now,” she wrote.
No ‘Forgiveness’
Another mother of one of Marler’s foster daughters also read a statement from her now 21-year-old.
“You’ll never get my forgiveness,” she wrote.
As a 9-year-old, she said she was placed in the Marler home and forced to steal food, run in the snow in her pajamas during a cold Wyoming winter day, and endured other abuse.
She wrote that Marler and his wife, Kristen, and the Wyoming Department of Family Services failed her, and she still struggles from her experiences in the home.
“I can’t bear physical touch,” she wrote.
Another mother, Olivia Munoz, who granted Cowboy State Daily permission to use her name, told the court that her two sons adopted by the Marlers “were not raised in a home — they were raised in captivity.”
“They were starved, beaten, isolated and systematically dehumanized,” she said.
Munoz said the Marlers kept the boys “on the mountain,” and when she saw them, they wore oversize clothes to hide “how emaciated they were.”
“When they came for visits, they looked me in the eye and said, ‘Life is good,’” she said. “But I could see it in their faces, they were scared to tell the truth.”
Munoz addressed Marler and told him that she hoped “the silence you gave those kids haunts you in the dark, louder than any scream ever could.
“You didn’t just fail as a guardian, you failed as a human being. And now you are going to answer for it.”
A ‘Persona’
Natrona County Assistant District Attorney Brandon Rosty told the judge that the evidence at trial and the words of Marler to one of his adopted daughters that, “I know I shouldn’t love you like this, but I do” were key to understanding the whole case.
Marler was “teaching (that) this love was normal, knowing full well how wrong it was.”
Rosty said Marler created a “persona” outside of his home, while creating an atmosphere inside the home that made his foster and adopted children too scared to report the abuse that was happening to them.
“The defendant (carried on) years of calculated and systematic abuse,” he said. “The defendant continues to deny his actions.”
Rosty praised the strength and courage of the foster children who testified at trial and who are still trying to overcome the experiences they suffered in the Marler home.
“(One victim) will never be the same. She never had a father figure,” he said, adding that at the Marler home, “instead of learning life skills she had to learn survival skills.”
Rosty briefly mentioned the video evidence and testimony in the trial and spoke to the physical abuse that Marler’s adopted sons and daughters suffered — including one daughter being kicked to keep the sexual abuse secret, a son thrown off a roof, another having his face rubbed in the snow.
Rosty went through the 14 counts that Marler was convicted on and told the judge that in counts one through three involving one adopted daughter, he was asking for 18-20 years on two charges involving sexual abuse of a minor in the second degree and 13-15 years for the sexual abuse of a minor in the third degree.
On five sexual abuse of a minor charges involving a second adopted daughter, he asked for 45-50 years for the first-degree charge, 18-20 years on two second-degree charges, 13-15 years on two third-degree charges.
Rosty said the charges involving each daughter could be concurrent, but that he was asking for the penalties involving the two daughters to be consecutive.
Not A ‘Monster’
Defense Attorney Devon Petersen told the court that he did not believe that Marler was a “monster,” and that he and his wife had “redeeming qualities.”
Petersen said the evidence shown on the video in court was real and revealed actions that were not “appropriate,” but that Marler had in previous times shown the children parental love and tried to give them a normal home.
“In the beginning, their hearts were in the right place and good times were had,” he said.
That video evidence played in court during the trial by Rosty showed the foster children, boys and girls, all sleeping on the floor in the library, using a bathroom and showering with the door open, and in one instance a boy who left the screen and reappeared naked showing signs of a beating.
Petersen said he did not have any sentencing recommendations.
When Marler was given a chance to speak, he told the judge that he has “striven my whole life to be a good person and do right.” He characterized himself as a “good husband” and “good father” to many children.
“I did not sexually abuse any children,” he said.
Marler told the court that he had the “best of intentions” but did “fall short” and fail his family and the community.
“I am sorry,” he said. “I pray for grace and healing for everyone involved in this case.”
In 2013, Marler and his wife Kristen were recognized by the federal Administration for Children and Families with an Adoption Excellence Award, one of only three families across the nation to get the award that year.
The Sentences
Johnson said she considered the pre-sentence report and letters written on Marler’s behalf.
Then she pronounced her sentence, imposing 10-15 years each of the three third-degree sexual abuse of a minor convictions he faced involving the two daughters, 15-20 years each for the four second-degree convictions involving the two daughters, and 35-50 years for the first-degree conviction involving one daughter.
Johnson imposed a one-year sentence for the child endangerment charge involving Marler throwing one of his adopted sons off of a garage roof and 180 days for five battery charges that in one charge involved a foster daughter, and each of the others four separate adopted children.
“Each of these sentences will run consecutive to one another,” she said.
Marler was given credit for 111 days served.
Johnson also fined Marler $5,000 for each of the eight felony charges and $750 for each of the six misdemeanor charges.
After the sentencing, Natrona County Defense Attorney Dan Itzen stood beside Rosty outside the courtroom and credited law enforcement in the community for “not giving up on the case.”
“I’ve never seen a case as complex and horrific for the children of this community,” he said.
Munoz said she wanted to thank the judge, Rosty, Itzen the district attorney’s victims support team and Natrona County Sheriff’s Office Investigator Lisa Lauderdale for “all that they have done in this investigation.”
“There needs to be a lot of changes done at the DFS,” she said. “I am glad that Steve was sentenced consecutively so that each of these victims feel like they were served justice.”
Dale Killingbeck can be reached at dale@cowboystatedaily.com.
