A Mills man's sentence of life imprisonment in a brutal rape and kidnapping case from 2004 will stand, the Wyoming Supreme Court ruled Thursday.

Ronald Gorseth argued that the report that was used when he was sentenced to two consecutive life-terms in prison was incomplete and unfairly slanted against him.

The Supreme Court disagreed, finding that the probation officer who wrote the report complied with the rules that govern preparation of pre-sentence investigations. Gorseth was arrested Dec. 6, 2004, after he attacked a 26-year-old woman who was loading her 3-year-old daughter into a child seat outside the Kum & Go convenience store at McKinley and 15th streets. According to police, he forced the woman to perform repeated sexual acts as he drove up and then parked on Casper Mountain.

The woman later managed to attract the attention of bystanders after Gorseth stopped at a Paradise Valley gas station.

Gorseth's criminal history was a major focus at his sentencing hearing in April 2005. Mike Blonigen, Natrona County's district attorney, described as "shocking" the similarities between the December attack and the 1992 crime in California for which Gorseth received a 10-year prison sentence.

The California attack also involved a sexual assault on a stranger, in that case with the woman's child sleeping in a nearby room.

Gorseth's pre-sentence report calls the 1992 attack "strangely similar."

"While the defendant does take responsibility in this case he has never taken responsibility in his first case which causes concern for this agent," the report reads.

The Supreme Court opinion says this passage does not violate the "nonargumentative style" required in presentence reports, nor was it proven to be inaccurate.

The Supreme Court opinion also rejects arguments that the probation agent should have interviewed Gorseth's family members and ought to have listed alternatives to prison when the report was first filed.

Reporter Anthony Lane can be reached at (307) 266-0593 or at anthony.lane@casperstartribune.net.