BULLHEAD CITY – A prison term of just under 100 years has been ordered for the Bullhead City man convicted at trial last month in a child pornography case. Judge Doug Camacho imposed sentence Wednesday, April 2 for Michael Fattouch, 56.
Many Mohave County child porn defendants reach plea agreements involving 5-10 year prison terms rather than risk conviction at trial and the harsh reality of Arizona law requiring 10-24-year prison terms for each sexual exploitation of a minor conviction.
Fattouch rolled the dice and lost. The Mohave County Superior Court jury rejected his defense that he watched adult porn, but that child porn material would show up uninvited and unintended.
Deputy Mohave County attorney Karolina Czaplinska successfully argued that downloading 24 video and image files of children being violated was no accident, and that the defendant deleted them to avoid detection, prosecution and prison.
Defense attorney Ron Gilleo asked the Court to impose the minimum decade prison sentence for each of the eight sexual exploitation of a minor convictions. “This is essentially a life sentence, and we don’t believe there’s any need to go beyond the 80 years,” he said.
Judge Camacho declined to simply stack one decade prison sentences for the 8 convictions. He said each of the offenses and corresponding child porn material involved different degrees of sexual engagements by minors.
“All of these images are disturbing,” Camacho said. “Some are more disturbing than others.”
Camacho imposed a 98-year prison sentence.
