June 17, 2020
A Beaver, Utah man was sentenced to jail yesterday after pleading guilty to four counts of Attempted Sexual Exploitation of a Minor.
Nathaniel Tyler Adams, 24, was sentenced to serve 364 days in the Beaver County Jail and will be placed on probation for 48 months upon his release, where he must abide by all the related conditions. Additionally, he must register as a sex offender and complete a sex offender treatment program.
Adams was first arrested in January 2020 following an investigation by the Utah Attorney General’s Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force. Investigators received a CyberTip reporting chat logs that appeared to be discussing arrangement for the sexual molestation of a user’s daughter and a CyberTip reporting child pornography uploaded to Instagram. Investigators were able to trace the account of the chat and the Instagram account back to Adams.
In an interview with investigators, Adams admitted to being the owner of the chat and Instagram account, as well as possessing and uploading child pornography.
Initially, Adams was charged with 10 counts of Sexual Exploitation of a Minor, however, six of those charges were dropped and the remaining four counts were reduced to third-degree felony charges of Attempted Sexual Exploitation of a Minor as part of a plea agreement.
In an interview with Cedar City News, Assistant Attorney General Ryan Holtan explained the reasoning behind the plea agreement.
“The tricky thing with child pornography is, there’s sometimes thousands and thousands of counts,” Holtan said. “Regardless of how many counts of child pornography you charge somebody with, if they’re convicted of two, five, 10 or 20, the courts actually don’t treat those much differently.”
According to Holtan, the current plea dead carries a greater sentence than if he had been convicted of all counts he was originally charged.
“What we did is, when we pled him to the four charges, we ran those consecutive,” he said. “If he screws up, he’ll go to prison for up to 20 years. Whereas, an initial charge of child pornography only carries the potential of up to 15 (years).”
The Utah Attorney General’s Office wishes to thank the Beaver County law enforcement officers who assisted with this case.
