Ex-Hatfield man jailed for possessing child porn
NORRISTOWN >> A former Hatfield man, most recently of Lower Merion, faces time behind bars and sex offender treatment for possessing child pornography on his computer and cellphone.
George Andrew De-LaGarza, 23, formerly of the 2000 block of Maple Avenue, Hatfield, was sentenced in Montgomery County Court to 11½ to 23 months in the county jail, to be followed by 10 years of probation, after he pleaded guilty to felony charges of possessing child pornography in connection with incidents that occurred between September 2017 and June 2018.
The sentence means DeLa-Garza will be under court supervision for about 12 years.
Judge Risa Vetri Ferman, who accepted a plea agreement in the case, said DeLa-Garza can be released from jail after serving 10 months behind bars but only if he’s placed in an inpatient sex offender treatment facility. The judge said De-La-Garza is prohibited from having contact with minors during his supervision.
De-La-Garza also faces a 15-year requirement to report his address to police in order to comply with Pennsylvania’s Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act.
The charges stemmed from incidents that occurred while De-La-Garza was residing in Hatfield between September and December 2017 and at his most recent address in the 1000 block of County Line Road in the Bryn Mawr section of Lower Merion.
Court documents indicate an investigation of De-La-Garza began in January 2018, when county detectives received a tip that originated from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children regarding someone using a video sharing social media site in September 2017 to upload suspected images of child pornography. The Internet subscriber information was traced to a Hatfield address where DeLa-Garza was living at the time, court papers indicate.
In May 2018, investigators received a second tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children indicating an Internet account, which eventually was linked to De-LaGarza, uploaded a video depicting child pornography, according to the criminal complaint. That Internet account was traced to DeLa-Garza’s Lower Merion address at the time.
On June 8, detectives, armed with a search warrant, went to De-La-Garza’s Lower Merion residence and found him there with his cellphone and desktop computer. A review of the computer by detectives uncovered at least 40 images of child pornography, according to the arrest affidavit.
“De-La-Garza admitted he was responsible for the child pornography found on his computer,” detectives alleged, adding the defendant also admitted he was responsible for the child porn videos uploaded to the video sharing site in 2017. “He said he also used the found cellphone to view child pornography after he uploaded it from his computer to his cellphone.”