It was a guilty plea that almost didn't happen Friday in federal court as a Lonoke County man accused of procuring sexually explicit photos from an 11-year-old girl said he had been threatened with life in prison if he didn't sign the plea agreement.
Joseph Lee Garner, 34, of Ward was indicted by a federal grand jury in August on charges of attempted production of child pornography and receipt/distribution of child pornography in connection with images discovered on his phone a year earlier during a meeting with his parole officer.
The plea agreement called for him to plead guilty to the receipt/distribution count, which would send him to prison for as much as 40 years, in exchange for the dismissal of the attempted production count, which carried a possible life sentence.
According to a probable cause affidavit filed by the Lonoke County sheriff's office, Garner was meeting with his parole officer on Aug. 12, 2021, when the officer found a conversation on Garner's phone between him and what appeared to be an underage girl describing sex acts between the two. The affidavit said Garner then grabbed his phone and attempted to flee the building but he was subdued and arrested.
Reading facts into the record at a hearing Friday in Little Rock, Assistant U.S. Attorney Katie Hinojosa said the search of the phone revealed that Garner had been communicating with a minor, referred to as "R," on Snapchat and that R stated in her messages that she would soon turn 12. In response, Hinojosa said, the then-32-year-old Garner told the girl he was 19, and at his request the girl sent sexually explicit photos to him.
Hinojosa said the two also had multiple conversations over Snapchat in which Garner planned several scenarios in which the girl could come to Arkansas from Texas for the purpose of having sex with him.
Garner was initially charged in Lonoke County Circuit Court with conspiracy to commit rape; sexually grooming a child; child pornography; and distributing, possessing or viewing of matter depicting sexually explicit conduct involving a child. Those charges were dismissed after Garner was federally indicted.
"Has anyone made any threats, promises or other inducements to try to get you to plead guilty here today?" U.S. District Judge Lee Rudofsky asked as part of a standard list of questions asked at plea hearings.
"Of course," Garner said matter-of-factly, earning a double-take from the judge. "I was told if I didn't sign I would get life. That seems like a threat to me."
"Ms. Hinojosa?" Rudofsky asked, looking pointedly at the prosecutor.
"I believe he is referring to count 1 of the indictment," Hinojosa said, referring to the attempted production count. "That may be a possibility of what we're looking at should we go to trial."
"It's one thing if somebody told you if you didn't enter this plea deal the government would seek to prosecute you on Count 1 and Count 2 and explain to you the potential penalties," Rudofsky told Garner. "That's just a true statement. It's quite another thing if somebody told you if you didn't sign this you would get life in prison. Which of those are we dealing with?"
"When I was told that," Garner replied, "to me, it most definitely was a threat. I've never been more scared in my life. I don't see anyone in their right mind that would not agree to this."
"Which one was it?" Rudofsky continued. "That there's the potential of getting life or that you would get life?"
"Well, the way it was worded is that I would get life," Garner said. "It goes on to say that it's, it would be potential had I lost at trial."
Rudofsky then spent several minutes explaining some of the factors that go into sentencing and said if Garner were to go to trial on Count 1 -- attempted production of child pornography -- U.S. sentencing statutes prescribed a minimum sentence of 15 years and a maximum of life.
"That's a very large window," he said.
Rudofsky then explained the sentencing guidelines and some of the factors that go into the guidelines on sentencing-range calculation.
"Nobody can tell you that you are definitely going to get 15 years or that you are definitely going to get life," he said. "If you go to trial there is considerable risk but you also absolutely have the potential that a jury won't convict you."
He told Garner it was understandable that he would feel pressure from the weight of the decision but said the decision was his and his alone and that any plea would have to be knowing and voluntary.
"Everybody would feel pressure like that, but that's different from somebody threatening you," Rudofsky said. "Is it just the pressure you feel because you're worried about opening yourself up potentially to a life sentence or is there something more than that that's more threatening?"
"I'm doing this because I feel like this is the only hope I have to save my life," Garner said, growing emotional.
Rudofsky then raised the possibility that Garner might be considering a plea to an offense he didn't commit because it carried a lesser sentence than one he did commit.
"You understand you can't tell me you committed one of these crimes just to get out of the other one or out of a trial if indeed you didn't actually commit the crime?" he said. "You're not doing that, are you?"
"I'm not doing that," Garner said.
The hearing nearly went off the rails a second time when Garner objected to several points in Hinojosa's narrative, saying he never attempted to flee from his parole officer and that he didn't agree to meet R for sex. Garner also said he initially engaged in the exchange with R because he thought she was a scam artist and he decided to play along.
At the point that he asked the girl for explicit photos, Rudofsky asked, did he believe he was dealing with a scam artist "or did you believe she was who she said she was?"
"From the beginning I believed it was a scam artist," Garner said.
At different points, Garner alternately said he thought the person he was dealing with was over 18 or that he thought the photos he received were computer-generated images and not of a real person. After extensive questioning by Rudofsky and an extended conference with his attorney, Omar Greene II of Little Rock, he admitted to knowing before receiving a final image that the girl was underage. He said he had doubts early in the exchanges but continued to communicate with her.
"There was plenty of red flags," he said. "I knew that I was in dangerous territory."
"Did you know," Rudofsky then asked, "you were getting sent pictures of a minor?"
"The last one," Garner began, "I had enough knowledge to, to ..."
"Not after you got the picture," Rudofsky cut him off. "Before you opened up the picture did you know it was going to be a picture of a minor?"
Finally, Garner said he knew from the first full-face photos he received that the girl was young, although he said he first thought the photos were computer-generated. He said he eventually concluded that he was engaging with a minor.
"In some of the messages she sent me I could tell from the way she was talking that she was immature," he admitted. "So I'd say that was enough evidence for me."
After about 80 minutes, Rudofsky concluded that Garner would be able to plead. At that point he accepted Garner's guilty plea to the receipt/distribution count and dismissed the attempted production charge. Garner will be scheduled for sentencing after the completion of a pre-sentencing report by the U.S. Probation Office in Little Rock, a process that typically takes between 90 and 120 days.