A former college baseball star will serve some time in an Idaho jail, but avoided a lengthier prison sentence for felony injury to a child after being accused of sexually assaulting a young girl over a five-year period.
Candon Dean Dahle, a 22-year-old ex-BYU pitcher, was sentenced by to a minimum of five and a maximum of 10 years in prison by Idaho Judge Steven Boyce, only for Boyce to suspend the sentence and place the defendant on probation for eight years.
Dahle did get a 180-day jail sentence that was set to begin last week, as well as 200 hours of community service.
The lighter sentence was the result of a plea agreement between Dahle and prosecutors in Fremont County, Idaho in exchange for a dismissal of similar pending charges in Bingham County and a recommendation of probation. Furthermore, the deal means Dahle won’t be forced to register as a sex offender, according to EastIdahoNews.com.
Dahle was arrested in February in Provo, Utah, where he’d pitched for the Cougars over the 2024 season, before being extradited to his native Idaho.
His 15-year-old accuser recently told a St. Anthony, Idaho courtroom of the years of abuse she suffered from the age of 7 to 12, when Dahle was in his mid-to-late teens. In courtroom statements, she and three members of her family also voiced their regrets for agreeing to the plea deal that will have him back on the streets in early 2026.
Candon Dean Dahle, 22, was sentenced by to a minimum of five and a maximum of 10 years in prison by Idaho Judge Steven Boyce before that sentence was reduced significantly
‘Every single day since I was seven, Candon has made me hate myself,’ the victim told the court, as quoted by EastIdahoNews.com. ‘I wake up every morning and have to give myself a reason to stay here. I want Candon to know that many days, I have felt I would have rather he ended my life than forced 7-year-old me to have to live through all those years of what he did to me.
‘You forced me to keep your secret for seven years. I sat through your baseball games, I watched the world cheer for you. I watched you achieve every church standing and be celebrated, all while I screamed inside because I knew the truth.’
She recalled one incident when she was 11, claiming Dahle covered her mouth because he ‘didn’t want the family close by to know what he was doing.’
She also pleaded with Boyce to hold him accountable.
‘Candon acts powerful and entitled, but all it took was a 14-year-old girl to show the truth… your honor, I have worked so hard the last five months to find things I love again because he took everything from me,’ said the victim.
‘I need you to know that if he gets off today, I will wonder for the rest of my life why I ever put myself and my family through this. Please don’t take away the only part of this that gives me some sense of peace.’
The former BYU pitcher was arrested in February after the victim reluctantly came forward
Her father told the courtroom he witnessed his daughter’s decline over the last few years and is only now beginning to understand the pain she was enduring.
‘I cannot even hug my daughter,’ he said, as quoted by EastIdahoNews.com. ‘Touch repulses her. She cringes and pulls away every time I make an attempt to hug her. Please let that sentence marinate for a minute.
‘Listening to my daughter, her earliest memories of the abuse she can remember are at the age of seven. I wish I could show you the videos I have on my phone of her at that age. She is truly a gift from my Heavenly Father. She is filled with pure, absolute joy. Her laughter is so contagious. To think she had to endure a personal hell until the age of 12 is, at times, too much to bear for me.’
For years, the victim’s mother explained to the court, the family thought she was battling health issues. Things grew so bad the victim needed to miss school frequently while her parents struggled to find an answer.
That answer proved to be more horrifying than they could have imagined.
‘Now that I’ve pieced together that those painful nights were a child’s body crying out from trauma, I can hardly get out of bed each day,’ her mother told the court.
The victim’s stepfather attempted to illustrate the difficult road ahead for the family, saying the 15-year-old has been losing sleep, struggling to eat and often sobs uncontrollably.
Furthermore, the stepfather remembered Dahle as someone who would ‘always push the boundaries of everything, even personal touch, oftentimes making people feel uncomfortable.
‘He did these things right in front of me. In front of all of us… my wife and I see the counsellor weekly.’
According to the victim, she was often brought to watch Dahle’s high school baseball games
Dahle reportedly shed a tear during testimony, but according to the victim’s mother, had not really shown any remorse since his arrest in February. Had he shown remorse, she said, ‘things may look different today.’
Ultimately, the victim’s mother explained, her daughter reluctantly agreed to talk to police.
‘This was painful for her,’ the victim’s mother said. ‘She told me she didn’t want to do it, but she wanted to protect others.’
Fremont County Prosecutor Lindsey Blake pushed for a 10-year probation term, and while he conceded that Dahle passed a polygraph test, Blake reminded the court that the defendant did plead guilty to two charges.
Meanwhile, Dahle’s defense attorney, Curtis Smith, pushed for a three-year probation sentence, arguing that much of the abuse occurred when Dahle was also a minor.
However, Dahle wasn’t being charged for those allegations at this trial.
Dahle was also allowed to address the court and used the opportunity to apologize to the victim and her family.
‘I just want to say to the victim, the victim’s family, my family, that I’m sorry,’ he said. ‘And I truly do mean that. I know I can’t fix what I’ve done. I can’t take back what had happened. But I do want them to know that I’m trying to rectify, and I have been, as Curtis said, I am going to counseling. I’m learning things, I’m progressing. I’m learning how it has affected the victim, their family, and their extended family, how it’s affecting me, and how it’s affecting other people that I might not even know.’
Dahle began his NCAA career at the College of Southern Idaho before transferring to BYU. Both schools have since removed his bio page from their athletic department websites.
