10 Years in Prison for Arizona Man Who Had Sexual Videos of Underage Girls

PHOENIX, ARIZONA – A man from Phoenix, Arizona has been sentenced to 10 years in state prison after his guilty plea to charges related to him possessing child pornography videos of underage girls, according to an announcement by the Arizona Attorney General’s OFfice on Tuesday and AZCentral.com.

61-year-old Donald Dale Knuckles from Phoenix, Arizona gave a guilty plea in December to two charges of sexual exploitation of a minor. Court records show that Knuckles was sentenced in the Maricopa County Superior Court on January 29.

AZCentral.com reports that The special agent in charge of the Phoenix office for Homeland Security investigation, Scott Brown, said in a news release, “The sentence imposed on this despicable individual ensures that he will not have another opportunity to exploit another child through his perverse behavior.”

“We will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to target those who believe they can hide behind their computer screens by identifying and holding them accountable for their grotesque actions,” Scott Brown stated according to AZCentral.com.

Investigators with DHS said that in November of 2018 they found a computer in Phoenix that was sharing digital files that contained “graphic depictions of child sexual exploitation” via a file-sharing network that was peer-to-peer such as through torrents, according to the release and AZCentral.com.

Investigators subpoenaed the internet service provider and discovered that Knuckles was the owner of the computer. A search warrant was issued by agents at Mr. Knuckle’s home in February last year and they discovered sexually explicit videos of children on the electronic device.

Knuckles waived his Miranda rights and gave a confession that he downloaded sexually explicit content of children.

Knuckles then later pleaded guilty to two counts of possessing sexually explicit videos of girls under the age of 15. When Knuckles is released from prison he will be required to serve probation for the rest of his life and to register as a sex offender.

“From undercover operations to working with other law enforcement agencies, the Attorney General’s Office will continue to do everything we can to protect children from predators,” AZCentral.com reported Attorney General Mark Brnovich as saying in the news release.

Donald Dale Knuckles was represented in court by a lawyer named Kyle Ipson who is with the Maricopa Public Defender’s Office.