Austin man sentenced to probation for child porn; Authorities traced upload to home

Published 9:22 am Tuesday, October 10, 2017

Aaron Manuel Jiminez Murphy, 30

Aaron Manuel Jiminez Murphy, 30, of Austin was sentenced on Friday in Mower County District Court to a stayed prison term of 25 months for three counts of felony possession of pornographic works involving minors.

Seven other charges of felony possession of pornographic works involving minors were dismissed as part of a plea agreement.

Murphy must serve five years of probation, follow 23 conditions and pay $135 in fines and fees. He received credit for four days served.

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According to the court complaint, a special agent of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension Predatory Crimes section was assigned to an Internet Crimes Against Children tip in October 2016. The tip said someone with a local IP address had uploaded a sexually explicit image involving two underage females to “Chatstep.” The user went under the name “vincent.”

It was determined the IP address matched that of a Charter Communications user living in the 1300 block of Seventh Street Northwest. It was discovered that “vincent” also frequented online chat rooms associated with child pornography.

The image was eventually traced to a previous investigation in Pierce County, Washington.

Police executed a search warrant on Dec. 20 on Murphy’s residence and found a computer and flash drives containing hundreds of images and several videos of child pornography.

Murphy initially pleaded not guilty to the charges, then changed his plea in June.