Mathew Melnar

A Cody man serving prison time for sexually touching a teenager and secretly filming her in a state of undress is asking that his sentence be shortened by a couple of years.

In November, 38-year-old Mathew C. Melnar agreed to serve five to seven years in prison for felony counts of voyeurism and second-degree sexual abuse of a minor.

However, Melnar submitted a motion last month asking that his sentence be reduced to a three- to five-year term. The brief motion did not explain why Melnar believes his punishment should be reduced, but he asked District Court Judge Bill Simpson to schedule a hearing on the request.

Deputy Park County Prosecuting Attorney Leda Pojman filed a response last week opposing the motion, asking that Simpson deny Melnar’s request without a hearing.

Beyond being an inefficient use of the court’s time, “any such hearing would unnecessarily re-victimize and traumatize the minor victim in this matter,” Pojman wrote.

In the 13-page document she filed in support of the existing five- to seven-year sentence, Pojman argued in part that Melnar’s crimes were “egregious.”

Charging documents say Melnar sexually touched the girl’s breasts multiple times between 2015 and mid-2017, when she was somewhere between 14 and 17 years old. Melnar also reportedly hid his phone in the girl’s bathroom and captured footage of her topless.

When Cody police searched Melnar’s digital data in the case, they reportedly found an “overwhelming” number of searches for pornography, with many relating to illegal sexual activity between adults and children.

The teenage victim and her mother are both opposing Melnar’s request for a shorter sentence. In emails included in the court record, they noted that the deal was intended to keep Melnar behind bars until the teen graduates high school and moves forward with her life.

“Giving him this reduced sentence is going to make her [the victim] live in fear sooner than she is ready for,” the girl’s mother wrote on Wednesday. “Please do not release this horrible monster out early so that he can do this to another minor female and destroy her life forever.”

The teen added that, “There’s so many things in me that tell me that he is going to hurt another kid and that’s something I don’t want. ... It wouldn’t be fair to have another child in this world to lose their childhood due to a man who couldn’t keep his head straight or even try and fix his life.”

Both the teen and her mother said Melnar could have received a longer sentence had he not taken the deal, which involved 17 other felony counts in the case being dropped.

Pojman also noted that Melnar is being housed at the Wyoming Honor Conservation Camp — a minimum security prison outside of Newcastle that provides inmates with opportunities to work on forestry, firefighting, community service and federal projects.

“This privilege is not afforded to every inmate,” Pojman wrote. “The State is unsure of what [Melnar’s] complaint is, as he could be housed in Rawlins, Wyoming, at the State Penitentiary, with limited opportunities.”

As of Friday, Judge Simpson had not yet issued any rulings on Melnar’s request.

Wyoming Department of Corrections records say Melnar is currently scheduled to become eligible for parole in mid-October 2021.