POCATELLO — A 21-year-old local man could face a sentence of up to life in prison following a court hearing later this month where he is expected to plead guilty to statutory rape after reaching a new agreement with Bannock County prosecutors.

Taisen Joe Lopez-Scharer, of Pocatello, is scheduled to appear before 6th District Judge Javier Gabiola at the Bannock County Courthouse on March 30 for a change of plea hearing after Bannock County Deputy Prosecutor Greg Hotrum and Lopez-Scharer's defense attorney Sean P. Wynn reached a new plea agreement earlier this month.

Under the new deal, Lopez-Scharer is set to plead guilty to a single count of statutory rape. Seven other sex crime charges — three counts of statutory rape and four counts of child exploitation — across two separate cases will be dismissed, according to court records the Idaho State Journal recently obtained. The state has agreed to remain silent on sentencing recommendations.

The agreement, signed March 4, replaces one reached in January 2025.

The prior deal — a binding agreement — involved Lopez-Scharer pleading guilty to two reduced counts of felony injury to a child in exchange for dismissal of the remaining statutory rape charges.

Under that agreement, the state's sentencing recommendation was tied to the results of a psychosexual evaluation, ranging from six years of probation with a withheld judgment if Lopez-Scharer was assessed as low risk, up to a unified eight-year prison sentence of which only three years would be mandatory if he was assessed as high risk.

Lopez-Scharer pleaded guilty to the two counts of felony injury to a child — charges that would not have required him to register as a sex offender — on April 7, 2025.

During a sentencing hearing on July 3, 2025, Judge Gabiola rejected the binding plea agreement, allowed Lopez-Scharer to withdraw his guilty plea and returned the case to the trial calendar. The court also granted the state's motion to reinstate the original charges.

Lopez-Scharer was originally arrested in September 2024 on four counts of statutory rape after police said he impregnated a 16-year-old girl.

A second criminal case was filed against him in August 2025, charging him with two counts of sexual exploitation of a child and two counts of possession of sexually exploitative material, stemming from allegations that he solicited explicit images and videos from a second underage girl — an autistic teen living in Iowa — in late 2024.

Both cases are now covered under the new plea agreement, with all charges in the exploitation case set to be dismissed if Lopez-Scharer enters his guilty plea as scheduled.

While the state has agreed to remain silent during sentencing, Gabiola could impose any sentence up to the maximum penalty of life in prison and a fine of up to $50,000, as the new agreement contains no binding sentencing terms.

Lopez-Scharer remains incarcerated at the Bannock County Jail in Pocatello.

Both Bannock County Prosecutor Ian Johnson and Wynn declined to comment when contacted for this article due to the ongoing criminal proceedings.