Utahn with history of dismissed child sex charges pleads guilty in federal court

SALT LAKE CITY — A Utah man with a long history of being deemed incompetent and released after child sex charges were brought against him pleaded guilty for the first time in federal court Thursday.

"(The prosecution) assured me they will keep fighting. I had trust, but the judges kept deeming him incompetent and that was very frustrating and it felt like we were never going to see any progress so the fact that we are here now, I can't explain it. It doesn't happen often in these kinds of cases where you see justice," Stephanie Davis said.

Davis is the mother of one of the many victims of Jonathan Jareth Soberanis, she said.

Soberanis has made headlines over the years because of a pattern of being arrested for sex crimes against children, being charged, being found incompetent, then being released. Once he is released, police say he keeps committing similar crimes, and the pattern is repeated of him being charged, found incompetent, then released.

Davis said in January 2022, Soberanis was on her doorstep trying to gain access to her home and hurt her 7-year-old child in Lehi.

"I saw a news article of the Lehi Legacy Center case where he assaulted a 5-year-old in the bathroom ... I screenshotted it and sent it to my husband and told him, 'Hey, we gotta look out for this guy. He's local.' And then six months later, he was on my doorstep," she said.

Davis said her husband's coworker lived across from them, and the coworker was assigned to be Soberanis' caretaker, so he moved in. After the incident, voyeurism charges were brought forward against Soberanis, but he was deemed mentally incompetent, and they were dismissed.

"Then the federal government turned around and arrested him in the same courtroom," she said.

Soberanis, 31, was charged in federal court in September 2022 with distribution and transportation of child sexual abuse material. His competency was hotly debated during hearings in March last year when a string of experts testified.

The federal charges allege he used multiple social media profiles and apps, the dark web, and encrypted cloud storage to host his illicit photos and videos, which the Federal Bureau of Prisons psychologists say demonstrates a moderate level of executive functioning.

Various medical evaluators over the years have made formal and informal diagnoses, including neurodevelopmental disorder, fetal alcohol spectrum syndrome, dissociative identity disorder, autism spectrum disorder, and serious childhood trauma.

The March 2025 hearing appeared to be the first time forensic psychologists came to the conclusion that Soberanis was competent, given he be provided a number of accommodations for his mental disabilities. But in June 2025, he was found incompetent yet again in federal court in "a very close call" by U.S. District Judge David Barlow.

The court ordered Soberanis to be hospitalized for competency restoration, and in March, the court found "a preponderance of the evidence that Mr. Soberanis is able at this time to understand the nature and consequences of the proceedings against him and to assist properly in his defense."

A trial was scheduled for the end of August, but it was canceled when the defense indicated Soberanis intended to plead guilty.

"I knew that the images and videos that I received, kept, transported, and distributed were child pornography," he said in his plea statement filed in court. "I have no plea agreement with the United States. I chose to plead guilty without any agreement because the government did not extend a plea offer and ... I do not wish to have a trial because I am guilty."

Davis said it was an "amazing" moment seeing Soberanis plead guilty to both federal charges. She had been told by prosecutors it was possible they would never see any justice.

"Instant tears," she said. "Today, it feels really good, like a weight off my shoulders."

While this battle has been won, Davis says the fight isn't over. She feels state laws unfairly favor predators, and she hopes this case can be the first step in fixing that.

"It's huge to be able to say, 'No, he is competent; he knew what he was doing the whole time.' The federal government believed that from day one so now it's getting the state to do their job to change laws and make sure that they sew up these holes that they've created for these criminals and predators to fall through," Davis said.

Davis said she's "in it for the long haul" and will continue to fight for justice for all of the victims. Prosecutors have told her they aim to pursue reopening the dismissed state cases against Soberanis.

"There's lots of victims of Johnathan that have been failed by the state, and I 1000% intend to pursue this to the end to make sure every single family receives the justice they deserve. And I'm ready to expose every dark hole in this case that has allowed it to get this far. I'm ready to go to war," Davis said.

The judge ordered a psychosexual evaluation to be completed. His sentencing is scheduled for Jan. 19, during which he could be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison and a lifetime of probation.

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