MD - Illegal immigrant pleads guilty in child-porn case (updated)
Posted on Mar 7, 2016 by Don Aines
Prosecutors are recommending a five-year prison sentence for a Hagerstown man who pleaded guilty Monday in Washington County Circuit Court to three counts of possession of child pornography.
Christian Alexander Magana, 19, of Beachley Drive also entered an Alford plea to a charge of distribution of child pornography.
An Alford plea is not an admission of guilt, but an acknowledgment by a defendant that the prosecution has sufficient evidence to gain a conviction.
Magana denied knowingly distributing the pornographic videos by using a file-sharing site, Assistant Public Defender Carl Creeden told Circuit Judge Viki M. Pauler.
As part of the plea agreement, 17 other distribution and possession charges are to be dismissed.
Pauler ordered a pre-sentence investigation be completed before Magana is sentenced. She also ordered that he undergo a psychological evaluation.
Magana will continue to be held on $100,000 bond pending his sentencing, but he also is being detained on a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement warrant.
At his bond-review hearing in June, it was said that Magana is an illegal immigrant from El Salvador.
An Spanish-language interpreter was used during the plea hearing.
Magana's case was investigated by the Maryland State Police Computer Crimes Unit and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Assistant State's Attorney Sarah Mollett-Gaumer told the judge.
On March 10, 2015, a state trooper downloaded six files from an Internet address linked to Magana using a file-sharing service, according to the application for statement of charges.
Reading from the statement of facts, Mollett-Gaumer said in one video, the victim spoke in an undetermined foreign language, while another video indicated the child in it was from Argentina.
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Prison for illegal immigrant on child-porn charges
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Christian Alexander Magana
Don Aines
Updated 7 hrs ago
An El Salvadoran man who entered an Alford plea to distribution of child pornography was sentenced Friday in Washington County Circuit Court to state prison and faces deportation upon his release.
Christian Alexander Magana, 19, formerly of Beachley Drive, Hagerstown, through an interpreter asked Circuit Judge Viki M. Pauler for a "second chance" to remain in the United States, apparently not understanding that his status in this country will be determined by federal immigration authorities.
"My mom and sister are here. ... If I go back to El Salvador, I have no family there," said Magana, an illegal immigrant. He told Pauler his grandfather in that country had been murdered by "vicious gangs."
In March, Magana entered the Alford plea to distribution of child pornography. He also pleaded guilty to three counts of possession of child pornography.
An Alford plea is not an admission of guilt, but an acknowledgment by a defendant that the state has sufficient evidence to gain a conviction. At the time of the plea, Assistant Public Defender Carl Creeden said Magana denied knowingly distributing pornography through the internet.
Pauler sentenced Magana to 10 years in prison, suspending five years and ordering him to be on supervised probation for five years following his release from prison. While on probation, he cannot own or possess any device that can connect to the internet, and he must register as a sex offender for 25 years.
By federal statutes, the distribution charge is considered an "aggravated felony," and could result in an "accelerated process" for deportation, Creeden told the judge on Friday. It also limits a person's legal grounds for fighting deportation, he said.
Should he be deported and return to the United States illegally, Magana could face 20 years in prison, Creeden said.
Magana indicated during the investigation that he was actively searching for child pornography on the internet and that it was not an accidental download, Assistant State's Attorney Sarah Mollett-Gaumer told Pauler. She called the case "a little more troubling due to the number of images" of prepubescent children investigators found on Magana's laptop.
In March 2015, a Maryland state trooper downloaded six files from an internet address linked to Magana using a file-sharing service, according to the application for statement of charges.
Those files contained videos depicting prepubescent girls and a boy engaged in sexual acts with adults males, the charging documents said.
In May 2015, a search warrant was obtained for Magana's residence, and a laptop computer was seized from his room for a forensic examination, the documents said. In June 2015, police found another nine videos of child pornography on the computer, documents said.
Magana was given credit on his sentence for 403 days he has served since his arrest in June 2015.
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