A Hot Springs man was sentenced to 180 years in prison Thursday after he was found guilty of felony child exploitation charges, officials say.
Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel’s office announced in a statement Friday that John David Ross, 40, was arrested in June 2013 at his 1209 Richard St. home after an investigation by the attorney general’s cyber crimes unit. A laptop and other electronic evidence was collected by investigators when Ross was arrested.
Garland County Circuit Court Judge Marcia Hearnsberger presided over the two-day trial, and the jury deliberated for about 30 minutes before reaching the verdicts, according to the statement.
Ross was convicted on 16 counts of distributing, possessing or viewing matter depicting sexually explicit conduct involving a child, a class C felony, one count of permitting the abuse of a minor, a class B felony, and one count of bestiality, a class A misdemeanor, according to McDaniel’s statement.
He received 10 years in prison for each child pornography charge, 20 years in prison for the child abuse charge and one year in jail for the bestiality charge, which will run concurrently with the prison sentences.
All of the prison sentences will run consecutively, and Ross will be required to register as a sex offender.
He’s being held in the Garland County jail, awaiting transfer to the Arkansas Department of Correction.
Amanda Desaray Hartle, 34, who lives at the same address, was also arrested at the same time as Ross on similar charges, according to the statement. Her trial is scheduled for Dec. 2.
