LOGAN — A 38-year-old Nibley man has been sentenced to one year in jail for downloading child pornography. Ryan Zabriskie, who has been in the Cache County Jail since law enforcement raided his home in March, will serve four more months before being released.
Zabriskie was sentenced Nov. 4 in Logan’s 1st District Court. He previously accepted a plea deal, pleading guilty to three counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, a second-degree felony.
According to prosecutors, Logan City Police officers received a report in December 2023, reporting Zabriskie had saved a video file to a cloud service from his cell phone. The file showed a girl, between 5 and 7-years-old, being raped by an adult male.
Police were able to track the cell phone number and found 10 additional child pornography files saved to the cloud service. The number was registered to Zabriskie.
On March 21, police served a warrant to Zabriskie’s home and took him into custody. During a search of the residence, several electronic devices were seized, including a computer that was logged into a pornography site, court documents detailed.
While searching Zabriskie’s bedroom, police reportedly found “a large number of different articles of women’s underwear.” Some of the articles of clothing included “several pairs of young girl’s underwear that were stained.”
During the sentencing hearing, defense attorney Cameron Cox said his client admits to having a pornography addiction but may not have purposefully downloaded the child sexual abuse material. He suggested Zabriskie might have accessed the files accidentally.
Cache County Deputy Attorney Joshua Nemeth said Zabriskie had made victims out of numerous children. He called the Nibley man a predator, who should be removed from society.
Zabriskie refused to make a statement during the court appearance.
Judge Angela Fonnesbeck said the victimization of children is a “serious issue to the court that should not be tolerated.” She ordered Zabriskie to 365 days in jail, giving credit for 229 days previously served. She also sentenced the defendant to be placed on the sex-offender registry, have no access to the internet and successfully complete treatment.