A deeply divided appellate panel has upheld a 25-year state prison term imposed on a defendant who would have faced no jail time if he’d been a mere six months younger when he committed his crimes.

Mathew Angona was 16 when he committed four acts of first-degree sodomy, and 24 when he went to police, said he wanted to clear his conscience and admitted to the offenses performed eight years earlier on a youthful victim who had never reported the abuse.