By Tracie Sullivan, For Iron County Today
A 30-year-old Paragonah man was arrested last week for several felony charges after explicit videos were allegedly found on his phone.
Jacob Tanner Larson was charged with two counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, both second-degree felonies.
Larson’s arrest came after investigators received a tip in June from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC).
According to court documents filed in 5th District Court in support of the charges, the report from NCMEC was from Synchronoss Technologies, a cloud service used by Verizon. The tip came with a Verizon phone number that later traced back to Larson. It also included one video containing child sex abuse material.
Authorities secured a search warrant for all images and videos contained in Larson’s phone on July 23. Verizon turned the information over the following day in a zip file.
Among the videos that were found on Larson’s phone were two that had children as young as three and four-years-old that were being sexually abused, the affidavit states. A search warrant for Larson’s residence was then granted.
The court documents state that Larson has a “diminished mental capacity.” As a result, Larson’s parents were there at the time he was arrested due to this issue.
“Jacob’s mother stated she had legal court order guardianship over Jacob,” the affidavit states.
When officers initially arrived at Larson’s residence they explained to him and his parents that they had found child sex abuse material in his Verizon account. Larson then reportedly told police, “he was aware it was wrong for him to look at the images.” He later declined to speak to investigators after being read his Miranda Rights.
A search of the home and residence was conducted by police and all electronics were secured for further investigation.
The suspect was booked into the Iron County Correctional Facility.