Arkansas woman convicted of child porn, bestiality

A Hot Springs woman arrested last year by agents from the Attorney General's Office pleaded guilty today to multiple felony child pornography charges, Attorney General Dustin McDaniel announced.

Amanda Desaray Hartle, 34, of Hot Springs pleaded guilty to five counts of distributing, possessing or viewing matter depicting sexually explicit conduct involving a child, one count of fourth-degree sexual assault and one count of bestiality.

Garland County Circuit Court Judge Marcia Hearnsberger sentenced Hartle to 30 years in prison. Hartle will be required to register as a sex offender.

Hartle was arrested in May 2013 at her residence in the 1200 block of Richard Street in Hot Springs, following an investigation by the Attorney General's Cyber Crimes Unit. Investigators confiscated a laptop computer and other electronic evidence at the time of the arrest.

John David Ross, 40, of Hot Springs was also arrested at that time on similar charges.

"I'm grateful for the work our Cyber Crimes investigators did to bring this couple to justice," McDaniel said. "Our office will continue to work with other law enforcement agencies across Arkansas to send criminals who engage in these reprehensible crimes to prison, where they can no longer harm our most vulnerable citizens."

A Garland County jury sentenced Ross to 180 years in prison in October after finding him guilty of multiple felony child exploitation charges. THV11