photo by: Contributed

Justin Lewis, left, and the Judicial and Law Enforcement Center, right

A Lawrence man on Tuesday was sentenced to probation for child pornography charges he was recently convicted of in Douglas County District Court.

Judge Kay Huff sentenced Justin E. Lewis, 25, for his conviction on two counts of attempted sexual exploitation of a child. Lewis was convicted of the charges in November after he agreed to a plea deal.

Jill Jess, a spokeswoman for the Douglas County District Attorney’s Office, said the two-year probation sentence comes with an underlying one-year prison sentence. Lewis was also required to register as a sex offender.

In both counts Lewis was accused of conducting an internet search between January and May 2019 for a visual depiction of a child under the age of 18 shown or heard engaging in sexually explicit conduct, according to an amended charging document provided to the Journal-World on Tuesday.

Both charges were level-seven felonies and could have come with a maximum of 68 months, or more than five and a half years, in prison, according to the Kansas sentencing guidelines.

Lewis was originally facing several child pornography charges, the Journal-World previously reported.

When he was arrested in May 2021, Lewis was charged with four counts of sexual exploitation of a child and one count of internet trading in child pornography, all of which are level-five felonies. A level-five felony conviction can result in prison time up to 136 months, or a little more than 11 years.

In the original charges, Lewis was accused of possessing, from July 2017 to July 2019, depictions of a child under the age of 18 shown or being heard engaging in sexually explicit conduct, according to the original charging document in the case. He also was accused of allowing others to view the depictions by using an electronic device connected to the internet.

Lewis was booked into jail on the charges on May 14, 2021, and released later that day, according to jail records.