A Rincon man arrested last year on child pornography charges has pled guilty in Effingham County Superior Court.
Justin Bowie pled guilty late last month to four counts of sexual exploitation of children and received a 10-year sentence, with five years to serve and five years of probation. The sentences on the other counts will run concurrently with the sentence on the first count.
Bowie was arrested in June 2012 by Effingham County and Liberty County sheriff’s deputies after ECSO investigators received information Bowie had illicit images and video. Liberty County deputies began receiving similar tips. The two agencies conducted a joint investigation and a search warrant for Bowie’s home was executed.
Bowie was indicted Sept. 17, 2012, for distributing three images and a video of children engaged in sexual activity and for possessing multiple images and videos of children involved in sexual activity. He was arraigned Oct. 24, 2012.
Investigators said the children in the videos and images appeared to be between the ages of 7 and 13.
An Effingham County man arrested in connection with an August 2012 attempted armed robbery also has pled guilty to his charges. Joshua Buckner, one of three adults arrested, along with one juvenile, for the attempted holdup of a pizza driver in Springfield, entered a guilty plea to one count of armed robbery May 30.
He was sentenced to five years, with credit for time already served.
Charges against one of the men arrested, Peter Johnson III, were placed in the dead docket, but Johnson was indicted June 3 for armed robbery, attempted armed robbery and four counts of aggravated assault for an April 30 incident in Westwood Heights.