ST. GEORGE — Two men arrested on child pornography charges last week are now facing 30 additional second-degree felony counts of the same.
A CyberTipline report and IP address provided by Google Inc. led to the arrest of 40-year-old Nathan Michael Hill, of St. George, Nov. 1. Hill was charged with two counts of sexual exploitation of a minor after allegedly uploading photos depicting sex acts with a 1- to 2-year-old girl.
In an unrelated case, 18-year-old Decius Christopher Tho Duran, a Dixie State University student, was arrested the following day. Duran was charged with three counts of sexual exploitation of a minor after a ChatStep representative filed a CyberTipline report notifying authorities that Duran had uploaded an images of a 6- to 8-year-old girl being raped by a man to the ChatStep platform.
Upon review and screening of the investigative materials received in both cases, the Washington County Attorney’s Office Tuesday filed Amended Information in 5th District Court, charging both Hill and Duran of 15 additional second-degree felony counts of sexual exploitation of a minor.
Members of the Utah Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force executed search warrants on the residences of both Hill and Duran last week.
During the searches, investigators allegedly found numerous additional images of child pornography on both men’s electronic devices, according to probable cause statements filed by the Washington County Sheriff’s Office in support of the arrests.
While Hill invoked his right to remain silent about the allegations, according to the Sheriff’s Office, Duran reportedly admitted to viewing and sharing child pornography.
Duran also told authorities he is a registered sex offender stemming from sexually abusing and manufacturing child pornography of his younger female relatives, according to the report.
Both men were arrested and transported to the Washington County Purgatory Correctional Facility. As this report is published, the two remain in police custody.
Both men were found indigent by the court during their respective initial court appearances last week and will be represented by court-appointed attorneys.
Hill and Duran are both scheduled to make their next appearance in court Monday afternoon.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children launched the CyberTipline in March 1998 to further its mission of helping to prevent and diminish the sexual exploitation of children.
More than 12.7 million reports of suspected child sexual exploitation have been made to the CyberTipline between 1998 and June 2016, according to the organization’s website.
Persons arrested or charged are presumed innocent until found guilty in a court of law or as otherwise decided by a trier-of-fact.
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Yeah just a couple of typical RealLowlife scumbags
i still don’t get why the state goes after these kind of pedos so aggressively but lets the polygamous mormons get away with raping all those kids. if someone had unlimited funds to challenge the “sexual exploitation of a minor” charges in regards to possession of photos i don’t think such charges would hold up in a higher court. The first thing they’d have to do is supply the victim of the crime. The moral of the story: if these types of criminals want to get away with things like this and actual child molestation they need to join the FLDS mormon church.
Outhouse lawyer speaks nonsense. Apparently he has never heard of depositions of victims. There is no moral in an alleged immoral story.