ST. GEORGE — A man accused of downloading a number of videos depicting children being sexually abused and sodomized was sentenced to serve time in jail Tuesday following a months-long investigation by the St. George Police Department.
The defendant, 50-year-old Bryan Kyle Huber, appeared in 5th District Court for sentencing on second-degree felony sexual exploitation of a minor and misdemeanor possession of a controlled substance. Huber originally was charged with five counts of sexual exploitation, but four were dismissed under the terms of the plea agreement, as was a possession of paraphernalia charge.
The charges were filed by the Washington County Attorney’s Office following a six-month investigation that was set in motion in June, 2020, when the Center of Missing and Exploited Children received a report from KiK Messenger, a social media messaging application, advising that an unknown user was uploading multiple videos of apparent child pornography, according to charging documents filed with the court.
KiK also provided the username and email account associated with the IP address the files were being transferred from, which a global check revealed were devices located somewhere in St. George. The Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force office in Utah was contacted and they forwarded the case to the St. George Police Department’s Investigations Division for follow-up.
Detectives reviewed the file that contained multiple videos of “apparent child pornography,” the officer noted in the report, including videos that involved prepubescent children being sexually abused by adult men as well as women, and also involved other forms of sexual abuse towards children. The execution of a series of search warrants revealed the IP address used to transfer the files that belonged to Huber.
From there, detectives searched Huber’s residence and recovered several electronic devices, including two cell phones belonging to the suspect. During the search, Huber denied downloading any child pornography and told officers he had no association with any KiK account – comments that were inconsistent with what officers found during a forensic examination of the devices recovered from the residence. On Jan. 22, 2021, Huber was arrested and the charges were filed shortly thereafter.
During Tuesday’s hearing, Huber’s defense attorney, Edward Flint, addressed the court by saying his client stepped up and completed a psychosexual evaluation in advance of the hearing, which is used as part of an evaluation process to assist in the court during sentencing.
Flint said his client’s actions “shows his willingness to get started on dealing with his issues and beginning treatment,” adding Huber also has taken the recommendations outlined from the evaluation to heart and has started going to treatment. The letter from the treatment provider shows his client has undergone several sessions already, Flint said, and he is scheduled for several more.
Flint went on to say the treatment report also indicates that his client is doing “very well” and has shown progress thus far, and while a number of deficiencies were noted in the presentence report as they relate to his client, there also has been progress in those areas with the help of treatment. Flint emphasized the area of his client owning his actions, adding that Huber takes full responsibility. This also was also noted in the report.
The defense attorney closed by saying the report also noted a 97-98% likelihood that Huber would not re-offend, which he said also works in his client’s favor. He also asked that Huber be sentenced to probation instead of being incarcerated, adding if his client were to be sentenced to jail, then he asked that Wilcox follow the low-end of the guidelines as set forth in the presentence report recommending a fail sentence ranging from 105-210 days.
The defendant also addressed the court and said he has maintained full-time employment and has worked 6-7 days a week for more than a year, has complied with the requirements set forth by court support services and has been seeing a psychiatrist on a monthly basis. He went on to say he also completed the evaluation that revealed he is dealing with both substance abuse as well as sexual addiction.
He said his life is finally moving in the right direction, adding that incarceration would be detrimental to his future success, as well as his family relations, and he asked the court to give him the benefit of the doubt by imposing no jail time so he can complete the treatment he has already started. Instead, he said, the court could order a 90-day stay in jail should he violate any terms of his sentence, and asked that he be placed on an ankle monitor as he continues to participate in treatment.
He closed by saying he felt as though he deserved to remain free and prove himself not only to the court, but to God, himself, his family and to society.
Prosecutor Eric Gentry also addressed the court by saying the State’s position was to follow the recommendations as set forth in the presentence report, which recommended a jail term followed by probation.
District Judge Jeffery Wilcox began by addressing the defendant saying after careful review of the documents provided in the case, as well as the presentence report, he was inclined to agree that Huber did not have a predisposition to engage in this type of activity, nor did he believe the defendant was attracted to children, as the evaluation findings had stated.
Even taking those elements into account, Wilcox said that Huber was going to serve a jail sentence, and “I’m going to tell you why,” he said.
Wilcox went on to say the defendant’s statements as noted in the presentence report and evaluation referring to the fact Huber was using methamphetamine heavily during the period when the defendant had the idea of going online to see if child pornography was being posted on the internet and said the defendant stated he was shocked by what he saw, particularly concerning the abuse inflicted upon an infant, the judge said.
“There needs to be punishment because if people like you were not looking at stuff like that – then it wouldn’t be produced,” Wilcox said, adding, “You’ve earned a prison sentence for what you’ve done.”
The judge went on to say he wanted it known that in his courtroom, anyone who participates in these “horrid, horrid things” will pay the price by going to either jail or prison.
Wilcox continued and said he would follow the recommendations as set forth in the presentence report and he then sentenced Huber to serve 105 days in county jail followed by 48-months’ probation, while the term of 1-15 in Utah State Prison was suspended in the case. He also ordered the defendant to comply with all “Group A” sex offender requirements and restrictions, which include random polygraph examinations, having no contact with anyone under the age of 18 without prior approval of Adult Probation and Parole, sex offender registry requirements and so on.
This report is based on statements from court records, police or other responders and may not contain the full scope of findings. 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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