A 25-year-old Filipino man will spend the next five years on an intensive form of probation specifically for sex offenders, though he will be released from jail for the first time in 18 months, a judge said Monday.
Uny Nabua pleaded guilty in March to sexual exploitation of a child by video for allegedly admitting to watching pornography featuring male children who appeared to be between 8 and 12 years old, as well as showing it to a fellow restaurant employee.
“The law is clear that nowhere in the world is it acceptable for children to be subjected to the kinds of acts depicted in the materials Mr. Nabua was viewing,” Seldin said, noting that he only read about the video and did not see it. “But the mere description of those images is chilling and nauseating and can leave me with little doubt as to why the Legislature views it as such a serious offense.”
Evaluation reports from the Probation Department, however, indicate that Nabua is a good candidate for treatment, District Judge Chris Seldin said.
In addition to the five years of intense sex offender-focused probation, Nabua must register as a sex offender for 10 years and have no contact with anyone younger than 18 until probation officers allow it, Seldin said.
Nabua will be released from the Pitkin County Jail in the next seven days, which will allow him to find a place to live, the judge said.
In other court news Monday:
• A Florida man must pay $2,500 in fines and spend the next two years on probation for aggressively confronting a hunter who shot a bear on a next door ranch last fall.
Thomas Andersen, 69, previously pleaded guilty to felony attempted arson and misdemeanor disorderly conduct in exchange for a plea deal that calls for the felony to be stricken from his record if he stays out of trouble for the next two years.
Andersen, who owns a home on Brush Creek Road near Snowmass Village, confronted the hunter and his two young children Sept. 7 after witnessing the bear killing from his home. The hunter told sheriff’s deputies that Andersen was “in a rage” and screamed at him and cursed at his sons, according to sheriff’s reports.
He later poured gasoline on the neighboring ranch driveway, though he did not ignite it.
• After nearly three years in custody at the Pitkin County Jail, a Colorado Springs realtor who allegedly took three strangers hostage at gunpoint on Independence Pass is set to go to trial.
Brolin McConnell, 33, is scheduled to be tried over 10 days starting Dec. 3, according to court proceedings Monday. Seldin said the large amount of time will be necessary because finding qualified jurors in Pitkin County, where the case has received more attention than any other since he started as judge in November 2015, won’t be easy.
“There are two newspapers and a it’s a very small community,” he said. “My guess is that jury selection in Pitkin County will take a good long while.”
McConnell initially pleaded not guilty to the 18 felony counts filed against him, including attempted first degree murder, though he changed his plea to not guilty by reason of insanity in December 2017.
That stalled proceedings for more than 14 months until McConnell could be examined by psychiatrists at the state hospital. Those doctors found McConnell sane, which led his lawyers to ask for an independent psychiatrist examination.
On Monday, McConnell’s Denver-based lawyer said he’d received results of the report, though he didn’t comment further.
McConnell allegedly repeated threatened to kill the three men on Lincoln Creek Road in July 2016 while brandishing two handguns. All three were able to escape without physical injury.