Willmar man pleads guilty to possessing child pornography

Linda Vanderwerf, West Central Tribune, Willmar, Minn.
·2 min read

Aug. 4—WILLMAR — A Willmar man has pleaded guilty to a felony charge of possessing child pornography.

Junior Javier Morales Aguirre, 19, entered an Alford plea to the charge last week in Kandiyohi County District Court.

In an Alford plea, a defendant does not admit guilt but admits that the prosecution has enough evidence to make a conviction likely. It is treated like any other guilty plea at sentencing.

Sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 14.

According to the petition to enter a guilty plea, Aguirre agreed to enter the Alford plea to the child pornography possession charge, and a felony charge of disseminating child pornography would be dismissed.

If the judge accepts the plea agreement, Aguirre would receive no additional jail time. He would be ordered to serve probation and may be ordered to submit to a psychosexual evaluation. He would not be allowed to have unsupervised contact with minor females.

Aguirre was arrested in May and was still incarcerated in the Kandiyohi County Jail on $50,000 bail as of Tuesday afternoon.

According to the criminal complaint, Aguirre is accused of compiling a video of various child pornography scenes and sending it to a juvenile family member via Facebook Messenger in January. The video showed different scenes of a girl believed to be around 10 or 11. Some scenes involved penetration.

After Aguirre was arrested on May 21, his electronic devices were seized. He confirmed his Facebook account with law enforcement and said he did recall any videos of children having sex being sent to or from his relative.

The relative initially told law enforcement that Aguirre didn't send him the pornography but later admitted knowing about the video Aguirre sent.

The juvenile told law enforcement the video had been circulating amongst his friends and acknowledged it was a minor in the video. He wasn't sure if Aguirre had been the one who sent him the video because a lot of his friends had it.

The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension referred the case to the Willmar Police Department in April. The BCA had received a tip from Facebook, which reported Aguirre's account uploaded the video and sent it via Messenger to his family member.

The IP address where the video was uploaded is linked to Aguirre's address in Willmar.