GREEN RIVER — A Rock Springs man will spend at least the next 15 years of his life in prison after pleading guilty to distributing pornographic videos involving children during a change of plea and argued sentencing hearing Thursday.

Micah Reese, 51, pleaded guilty to four counts of sexual exploitation of children, two counts related to distribution of child pornography and two counts related to possession of child pornography. District Court Judge Richard Lavery sentenced Reese to eight to 10 years in prison for the first count of distribution of child pornography and seven to 10 years in prison for the second, to be served consecutively, with Reese being sentenced to eight to 10 years for each possession of child pornography charge to be served consecutive to the first two charges, but run concurrent with each other. The sentence for the two possession charges was suspended, with Reese being ordered to complete three years of supervised probation for each charge upon his release. He originally faced nine counts of sexual exploitation of children, three related to distribution of child pornography and six for possession. The remaining charges were dismissed by Lavery.

After Reese entered his guilty pleas, Lavery asked him how he came to possess and distribute the material. Reese said he was in a Wyoming online chat group and said he was “pulled into” subgroups that exchanged the pornographic material, admitting he could have gotten out of it but didn’t. Lavery read descriptions of pornographic videos found on Reese’s cellphone associated with the charges he pleaded guilty to, with Reese admitting he shared and possessed the videos. Reese told Lavery he did not personally know the people he sent the videos to, describing the group he was in as a place where people would trade child pornography with one another.

Criminal Chief Deputy and Prosecuting Attorney Micaela Lira sought a sentence that would have seen Reese in prison for at least 16 years and supervised probation, asking for eight to 10 years for both distribution counts. Lira said the concerning aspects of Reese’s charges were that he was distributing the material and posed as a 14-year-old girl in chat groups, asking users to send him videos of what they would want to do with him.

I was disturbed by the discussions you had in these chatrooms.

District Court Judge Richard Lavery

Eric Phillips, Reese’s defense attorney, argued that Reese is more than the charges filed against him, highlighting a childhood that saw him bounce between foster care and biological parents who struggled with substance abuse. Phillips said Reese was raised by his older brother once their father determined the two were old enough to stay at home as he left the boys to work two-week stints away from home. Phillips said Reese didn’t succumb to drug or alcohol addiction and had built a nearly 30-year career at Walmart before his job was terminated. Phillips said he was a rare defendant who had an ASI (Addiction Severity Index) that didn’t recommend treatment and had no prior criminal history. Phillips argued that Reese has a chance for rehabilitation and while admitting that Reese “got into trouble in a really bad way,” said nothing suggests he is a pedophile aside from the charges filed against him.

Phillips argued Reese’s sentence should be five to seven years for each distribution charge to run concurrently, with an additional eight to 10 years suspended sentence for the two possession charges and three years supervised probation. There wasn’t a chance Reese would be able to escape a prison sentence as distribution of child pornography carries a mandatory minimum sentence of at least five years in prison.

Reese also spoke on his own behalf, saying time at the Sweetwater County Detention Center has given him a chance to reflect on his actions.

“I know what I did was wrong. I think about it all the time,” Reese told Lavery.

Reese said he is working on change and has found religion, saying he and his wife read verses together. He said the time he has had to think has caused him to also consider how he would feel if it were his son involved in similar videos and images that he possessed. Overall, he said he is ashamed of his actions, admitting to the charges.

“I believe you have remorse for all this,” Lavery said while talking about his sentence.

Lavery said the purpose of the sentence is to serve to help a person rehabilitate, to serve as punishment, to serve as a deterrence of crime, and to protect the public by removing criminals from society. He said his court has seen a number of cases where people “go down the rabbit hole” into viewing child pornography, but he doesn’t often get cases where the defendant also distributes it to others. Lavery said the Wyoming Legislature was right in establishing a minimum sentence for distribution of child pornography. Lavery admitted to being struck by the information contained in Reese’s charging documents.

“Child pornography is a different breed of cat,” Lavery said.

The judge said children are vulnerable and should be protected. He said the children in those materials live as sex slaves and are treated badly every day. He said they are cast away once they mature beyond childhood, being sent out into the world without an education. Lavery also said he found the idea of a Wyoming group engaged in exchanging child pornography hard to fathom and disturbing. Reese’s actions also caught the judge’s attention.

“I was disturbed by the discussions you had in these chatrooms,” Lavery told Reese.

Lavery said he couldn’t do the work of the investigators and prosecutors dealing with child pornography cases and said the state takes sexual exploitation of children seriously. He also said other Wyomingites engaged in similar behavior will be found by law enforcement.

“You have the potential to be good, but you lost your way in a big way,” Lavery said.