{"id":126862,"date":"2026-04-29T16:21:43","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T22:21:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/man-convicted-of-child-sexual-assault-in-cortez\/"},"modified":"2026-05-10T12:35:30","modified_gmt":"2026-05-10T18:35:30","slug":"man-convicted-of-child-sexual-assault-in-cortez","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/man-convicted-of-child-sexual-assault-in-cortez\/","title":{"rendered":"Man convicted of child sexual assault in Cortez"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Shayne
Shayne Rowley was found guilty of sexual assault of a child and aggravated incest.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Utah resident Shayne Rowley was convicted of child sexual assault by a jury in the Montezuma County Combined Courts last week after an investigation that began two years ago.<\/p>\n

The jury found Rowley guilty of sexual assault of a child by one in a position of trust with a victim under 15 years-old and as a part of a pattern of abuse. He was also convicted on aggravated incest.<\/p>\n

Both are class three felonies. Rowley faces 8 to 24 years to life in prison, with a minimum of 20 years parole if released.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe entire community came together to support the survivor of this abuse, including the Four Corners Child Advocacy Center, members of Montezuma County Social Services, and countless others,\u201d said Justin Pierce, assistant district attorney for the 22nd Judicial District, in a statement. \u201cThey showed up in force to let the survivor know they were not alone and were safe.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to an affidavit from June 2024 outlining testimony from the victim and the victim\u2019s mother, Rowley, a former truck driver who resided in Utah, visited the victim between routes, staying in the Baymont Hotel or picking them up for monthslong periods.<\/p>\n

The affidavit details several instances of unwanted sexual contact and sexual assault said to be perpetrated by Rowley, including one incident at the duck pond in Cortez and several at the Baymont Hotel. The victim suspected their friends had similar experiences with Rowley.<\/p>\n

The victim\u2019s mom corroborated the victim\u2019s experiences.<\/p>\n

A Cortez police detective confirmed observing text messages from Rowley to the victim and the victim\u2019s mother exhibiting controlling and verbally abusive behavior.<\/p>\n

In his statement, Pierce thanked the young victim for their participation in the trial and commended the jury for their service.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis verdict is another step forward in the joint efforts of our dedicated staff, the Cortez Police Department and community partners like the Four Corners Child Advocacy center \u2013 and countless others \u2013 to make this district safer for children,\u201d Pierce said.<\/p>\n

Rowley was previously arrested for sexual abuse of a child in 1999 and convicted on sexual assault in Salt Lake City in 2000. He was also arrested for domestic violence and commission of domestic violence in the presence of a child by Salt Lake City sheriff\u2019s deputies in February 2002 and convicted of assault related to the incident in 2014.<\/p>\n

avanderveen@the-journal.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

A previous version of this article provided an incorrect minimum sentence Shayne Rowley faces. He faces 8 to 24 years to life in prison.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

previous arrests for child sexual abuse and domestic violence, Utah resident Shayne Rowley has been convicted in Cortez<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21974,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[133,168,28,29,524,6419],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-126862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-courts","tag-crime","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter","tag-sexual-assault","tag-tj-trueanthem"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126862"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126862\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":128375,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126862\/revisions\/128375"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126862"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=126862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}