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SALT LAKE CITY — Utah's 3rd District Judge Matthew Bates sentenced a Murray man to prison for one to 15 years for possession of child pornography, noting that the man did not follow his probationary sentence for a previous charge.
In 2019, less than a year before the child pornography charges were filed, Arik James Jeppsen was placed on probation for sexually assaulting a 12-year-old girl he met on social media while posing as a high school student.
Jeppsen, 21, pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, a second-degree felony. Initially, he was charged with 10 counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, but eight were dismissed as part of a plea deal.
Bates noted in a report of the April 20 hearing that Jeppsen was "given a very lenient sentence" in the case involving the 12-year-old because a psychosexual evaluation determined he was not sexually attracted to children and that treatment would help. In that case, the report says, parties assured the court it was a singular mistake.
"We now know that was patently false. Defendant was finding and viewing child pornography in the months leading up to the offense. ... And once on probation, he ... resumed contacting and grooming children online," Bates said.
Because of Jeppsen's "dishonesty with the court" and "egregious violations" of the conditions of his four-year probation, the judge reinstated a term of one to 15 years in prison that had previously been suspended in the case involving the 12-year-old. That sentence was ordered to run consecutive with the child pornography sentence.
So the two one-to-15-year sentences in this child pornography case — one for each charge — will run concurrent but consecutive with the case involving the 12-year-old, meaning Jeppsen will be in prison for at least two years and up to 30 years.
