AUGUSTA — A 21-year-old city resident will spend three years behind bars after officers doing a probation checks found child pornography images on his cellphone.
Blaine S. Baker pleaded guilty Monday at the Capital Judicial Center to three counts of possession of sexually explicit materials, all on Aug. 23, 2017, in Augusta. He was on probation at the time after being convicted in the same court April 11, 2017, of unlawful sexual touching, for which he had received 180-day fully suspended sentence and a year of probation.
Baker was ordered to serve that 180 days for violating probation.
The three-year prison term will be followed by two consecutive five-year terms, all suspended, with three years of probation on each. Justice Robert Mullen told Baker that if he violated probation on the new convictions, he could end up serving all that time.
Conditions of probation prohibit Baker from using devices capable of accessing the internet unless he has permission from his probation officer.
Baker also was ordered to register as a lifetime sex offender under the state’s Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act.
The prosecutor, Assistant District Attorney Frayla Tarpinian, told Mullen that officers talked with Baker and saw images on his cellphone of young children being sexually abused by adult males.
Tarpinian said investigators found “26 extremely serious videos” of prepubescent children with adults on the computer hard drive.
She added that Baker had lived outside at some point, so other cellphones he possessed were too damaged to be examined.
In exchange for Baker’s plea, a fourth charge of possession of sexually explicit materials was dismissed.
Baker agreed to the forfeiture of all his electronic devices.
He was represented in the case by attorney Andrew Wright, who noted that Baker has been behind bars for almost a year already on the charges.
Betty Adams — 621-5631
Twitter: @betadams
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