REGIONAL— District Court Judge Gary Pagliaccetti has sentenced a Tower man in connection with a felony conviction reached earlier this year for possession of child pornography.

Joshua Stewart Diaz, age 27, pled guilty in a Virginia courtroom on Jan. 23. On March 4, Pagliaccetti sentenced Diaz to 15 months in the St. Cloud state adult correctional facility, although he stayed that sentence for two years in favor of supervised release.

According to the criminal complaint filed with the court by the St. Louis County Attorney’s Office, officials with the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension identified Diaz, who lives at 103 Cedar St., Apt. A106, through an investigation of child pornography downloads. BCA officials executed a search warrant on June 2, 2017 at Diaz’s residence at which time they confiscated a home computer. Later examination of the device uncovered images and videos that were linked to child victims through the use of a national database of missing and exploited children.

Images included very young children between the ages of five and eight, according to the criminal complaint.

The sentencing of Diaz comes in the wake of a separate Dec. 18, 2017 conviction for non-consensual 5th degree criminal sexual contact. As part of a plea, authorities dismissed a more serious charge of 2nd degree criminal sexual contact with a child under the age of 13 stemming from an incident involving a local child. Diaz was arrested in March 2017 in the incident and served three days in the St. Louis County Jail before being released on $20,000 bond. Diaz was later sentenced to one year in the St. Louis County Jail, although that sentence was also stayed for three years should he not re-offend.

Diaz’s offenses require registration as a predatory sex offender and that he undergo sex offender treatment as part of his supervised release.