Owen Hagan, an island restaurant worker and Bradenton resident will spend most of the next two decades in prison.
But the sentence could have been a lot lengthier.
Judge Frederick Mercurio of the 12th Judicial Circuit Court ruled July 18 to find Hagan, 29, guilty of 21 second-degree felony charges for child pornography possession and sentenced him to 18 years in state prison.
Hagan’s sentence is about five years less than the lowest permissible prison term of 286.65 months and far less than the life imprisonment he could have received, according to a criminal punishment code scoresheet for the charges.
Manatee County sheriff’s deputies arrested Hagan June 28, 2021, following a four-month investigation into suspicious activity on his personal computer.
He was employed at the now-defunct Island Grill in Holmes Beach.
The investigation began in February 2021, when DropBox Inc. reported suspicious computer uploads to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s CyberTipline, which provided the tip to the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office.
MCSO detectives used an IP address associated with the DropBox user to subpoena the suspect’s internet and email providers for more information, which helped them identify Hagan as the user.
Law enforcement contacted Hagan March 17, 2021, at his mother’s home, where he was living, and confiscated his cellphone for analysis.
A digital forensics program, Cellebrite Reader, found Hagan had accessed DropBox at several points, matching the reported uploads, multiple internet searches for child pornography and visits to websites known to contain the material.
The program reportedly recovered 11 images and 15 videos from Hagan’s phone that authorities claim include depictions of sexual conduct by a child.
Shortly after his arrest, Hagan was charged with 26 counts of child porn possession, which he responded to with a not guilty plea and a demand for a jury trial.
He also was charged July 21, 2021, with a third-degree felony for soliciting a custodian of a child for unlawful sexual conduct.
Hagan initially pleaded not guilty but changed his plea to nolo contendere or no contest at a March 28 hearing.
At the hearing, Mercurio found Hagan guilty and sentenced him to 60 months in state prison — the maximum prison term for a third-degree felony — with 622 days credited for time served before sentencing.
Mercurio’s sentence also ordered Hagan to be registered with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement as a sexual offender.
The original case ended in similar fashion but with more lenient sentencing.
At a July 18 hearing, state prosecutors dropped five of 26 second-degree felony charges and Hagan changed his initial not guilty plea to no contest for the remaining charges. He was adjudicated guilty and sentenced the same day.
The first 10 years of Hagan’s sentence will run concurrent with his 60-month prison sentence, meaning the sentences will run at the same time instead of piling up.
The next eight years of the sentence will run consecutive to the first 10 years, adding up to 18 years in prison.
With 750 days credited for time incarcerated before sentencing, Hagan is set to be released sometime in 2039.
The sentence was a stipulated downward departure from the lowest permissible sentence due to a “legitimate, uncoerced plea bargain,” according to the criminal punishment code scoresheet.
A downward departure is a sentence that reduces an offender’s punishment below the lowest permissible sentence due to mitigating factors, such as a plea bargain.