Lazaro Aleman
ECB Publishing, Inc.
A Monticello man received a nine-year prison sentence with the Florida Department of Corrections earlier this week.
To a degree, however, 23-year-old Tyrone Terrell Wallace could count himself fortunate, considering the number of years that he could have gotten if the court had followed the state's guidelines.
Wallace entered a plea of no contest to 18 charges in court on Monday morning, Jan. 13. The 18 charges – which stemmed from his 2018 arrest – broke down into three counts of transmission of child pornography (each punishable by up to five years), and 15 counts of possession of aggravated child pornography, each punishable by up to 15 years.
Attorney David Collins, who represented Wallace, told the court that he wasn't mathematically smart enough to calculate the exact number of years that his client could serve if sentenced on each count consecutively, but he knew it would be a lot. Circuit Judge Dawn Caloca-Johnson supplied the answer: Wallace's exposure, she said, would be 225 years.
As it was, Collins said, he and Assistant State Attorney Andrew Deneen had negotiated a plea agreement that would result in Wallace serving five years on the three counts of transmission of child pornography, and nine years on the 15 counts of possession of aggravated pornography, with the time to be served concurrently.
The prison sentence, Collins said, would be followed by three years of sexual offender probation, which carries special conditions.
Wallace, he said, would also be entitled to 394 days credit, for the time that he had served in jail since his arrest.
Judge Caloca-Johnson questioned why the state had agreed to the more lenient sentence.
Deneen explained that the decision had resulted from his discussions with the defense counsel and in recognition of the defendant's lack of a criminal record and his mental history.
“The state thought nine years followed by three years of sexual offender probation was appropriate,” Deneen said.
The judge asked about the defendant's competency to enter a plea, given the state's mention of a mental history.
Collins assured the court that his conversations with his client had well satisfied him that there was no issue regarding competency and that Wallace fully understood the situation.
Judge Caloca-Johnson adjudicated Wallace guilty and imposed the negotiated sentence, with the additional conditions that he submit a DNA sample to the state and that he be classified a sexual offender.
The judge also warned that if Wallace violated his probation and the court determined that he had done so willfully, he could face up to 225 years in prison.
Wallace's arrest occurred on Aug. 6, 2018, based on three tips that the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) reported receiving between April and June about an internet user who was uploading child pornography to Facebook and/or Youtube. Which information the NCMEC forwarded to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE).
In response, the FDLE initiated an investigation that led to an account belonging to Wallace. In the subsequent interview of Wallace by the FDLE and Jefferson County Sheriff's Office investigators, the defendant admitted to uploading the images and volunteered that he also had child pornography on his cell phone. At which point, the law enforcement agents arrested Wallace and confiscated his cellphone as evidence for forensic testing.
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