Pleas to child pornography, sexual abuse net Decatur man two five-year prison terms

By Ron Ingram

DECATUR - John T. Spalding, 33, was sentenced Thursday to two concurrent five-year prison terms for his guilty pleas to one count each of child pornography and aggravated criminal sexual abuse involving a 15-year-old girl.

Associate Judge Timothy Steadman accepted Spalding's pleas and imposed the sentence, which was part of a plea agreement reached between Assistant State's Attorney Elizabeth Dobson and defense attorney Scott Rueter.

Spalding also must register as a sex offender and pay a mandatory $1,000 fine. He received credit toward that fine of $755 at $5 a day for time he served in jail.

Tonya M. Spalding, 34, the defendant's wife, pleaded guilty in June to the same charges. Steadman sentenced her Aug. 22 to four years in prison on the child pornography charge and three years on the aggravated criminal sexual abuse charge with the terms to run concurrently.

On Thursday, Rueter asked Steadman to allow John Spalding to withdraw his original guilty plea to a Class 1 child pornography charge and instead plead to a new Class 3 child pornography charge the state would file. He said Spalding pleaded guilty to the Class 1 felony because he hoped to request probation when sentenced but later discovered probation is not a sentencing option for Class 1 child pornography.

Dobson filed the substitute charge and did not object to the plea switch, to which Steadman agreed.

Asked by the judge to give a basis for Spalding's pleas, Dobson said if the alleged victim had testified she would have stated she was under the age of 17 when she first got to know the Spaldings, who invited her to their home. She said as the girl got closer to the couple, they gave her alcohol to drink and John Spalding photographed her fondling Tonya Spalding's breast, which he did for his sexual arousal.

Police were able to recover a photographic image of that encounter from the Spaldings' home computer, Dobson said.