Leader Photo by Tim Ryan Christian J. Wilson, seated beside attorney Eileen Hirsch, awaits a new sentence on charges of child porn possession in Shawano-Menominee County Circuit Court on Thursday. Wilson, originally sentenced to 27 years in prison was granted a new sentencing hearing by a state appeals court. He was sentenced Thursday to 18 years in prison.
A Shawano County man granted a new sentencing hearing last year by a state appeals court on possession of child porn charges was re-sentenced Thursday to 18 years in prison.
Christian J. Wilson, 29, was also ordered to serve another 10 years extended supervision after his release.
The new sentence knocks nine years off the 27 originally imposed, but was still harsher than defense attorney Eileen Hirsch hoped it would be.
Hirsch argued for a seven-year prison sentence, explaining that Wilson will have served four years of that term in October and could quickly be moved into a sex offender treatment program that would take up the final three.
Shawano-Menominee County District Attorney Greg Parker reiterated his recommendation from the original sentencing of 15 to 18 years in prison and 20 years probation.
Noting Wilson’s two “hands on” sex offenses with 5- and 11-year-old girls when he was a juvenile, Parker called Wilson a danger to the public whose collection of child pornography perpetuates crimes against children.
Parker also criticized the defense for comparing Wilson’s sentence to lesser sentences handed down in other child porn possession cases.
“These are red herrings,” he said.
However, in imposing the new sentence Thursday, Circuit Court Judge James Habeck did compare Wilson’s offenses to another Shawano County child porn case, but not in the defense’s favor.
Habeck cited the case of Damon J. Anker, 35, who was sentenced in April 2013 to 34 years in prison on 111 counts of possessing child pornography.
He said the content of the child porn Wilson possessed was more extreme.
“His violations are frankly worse than Mr. Anker’s,” Habeck said. “What he was watching was worse.”
Habeck also noted that Wilson has continued to deny the charges, despite finally entering a no contest plea, and even maintained his neighbor had downloaded the porn and was framing him.
“I don’t believe there’s an ounce of remorse,” Habeck said.
Former Circuit Court Judge Thomas Grover imposed Wilson’s original 27-year sentence in June 2011,. He was also given another 27 years’ extended supervision.
That was the sentence recommended by a Probation and Parole agent in the pre-sentence investigation report.
In January 2013, Judge William Kussel Jr. upheld Grover’s sentence at a post-conviction relief hearing in Shawano-Menominee County Circuit Court.
The District III Court of Appeals in November overturned the original sentence, concluding that its length would delay Wilson’s treatment and increase his chances of re-offending.
Key to the appeals court decision was testimony from Dr. Patricia Coffey, a clinical psychologist who also testified at Thursday’s hearing.
Coffey said sex offender treatment, which usually doesn’t begin until the last few years of a prison sentence, should begin as soon as possible to be effective.
In his sentencing, Habeck acknowledged that argument, but said Wilson would be older at the end of a longer sentence and less likely to offend because of his age.
“Judge Habeck should be commended for this sentence,” Parker said after the hearing. “I am pleased to see yet another child predator receive a lengthy sentence here in Shawano County. … The community will be safe for the next 18 years that he will spend in prison.”
Wilson was charged in 2010 with 31 counts of possessing child pornography based on images found on his computer that he downloaded in Wittenberg between January and June 2010, according to the criminal complaint. He pleaded no contest to 18 counts and had the remaining counts dismissed but considered for purposes of sentencing.