A Hayden man who shared child pornography on Twitter while he was living in Idaho Falls was sentenced to five years of probation Thursday.

Nathanial Pickering, 44, was originally charged with possession of sexually exploitative material in 2020. The charge was reduced to felony injury of a child as part of a plea agreement. As part of the agreement, the prosecution agreed to recommend probation.

Court records state Pickering posted photos to Twitter depicting children being forced to perform sex acts with adults and other children. The children ranged in age between toddlers and 16 years old.

The Bonneville County Sheriff’s Office began investigating Pickering after Twitter reported the content to law enforcement.

Defense Attorney Tyler Salvesen read a letter from Pickering’s ex-wife. She said Pickering was a good father who supported his children in following their dreams and that there were no signs of sexual abuse or exploitation.

“I believe in Nathanial as a person, as a man, a father and a spouse,” the letter said, according to Salvesen.

Salvesen said Pickering obtained the photos from other users through chat rooms that shared photos, which Salvesen called “dark” and said included illegal content.

According to Salvesen, search warrants which were executed for Pickering’s digital devices at his home, work and ex-wife’s business did not find any other child pornography.

“I’m not making excuses for Mr. Pickering. On the other hand, I understand that in these types of cases, that’s super, super rare, to have just a few pictures mingled with some other stuff,” Salvesen said.

Salvesen said Pickering had faced consequences before sentencing, shutting down his business in Idaho Falls and moving to Montana after the case was filed. He then reportedly moved back to Idaho, anticipating he would have to be in Idaho to serve to probation.

Bonneville County Deputy Prosecutor Jacob Jones said he believed probation was appropriate given that evaluations found Pickering to be a low risk of reoffending.

Jones asked that Pickering be required to undergo sex offender treatment.

Pickering apologized in his statement to this court, but maintained that his possession of the child porn was an accident.

“It’s one of them things that if you walk around muddy waters, you’re going to get mud on your boots,” Pickering said.

Whyte noted Pickering had a limited felony record, with only one case that was dismissed via a withheld judgment, but did have multiple misdemeanors.

Whyte gave Pickering an underlying sentence of three to eight years in prison, time Pickering will not have to serve if he follows the terms of the probation.

Whyte said he chose to give Pickering five years of probation because, even if Whyte’s possession of the child porn was unintentional, his participation in the chat room where they were spread helped create the market that motivates producers of child pornography.

“Your going to some internet location is assisting those individuals in continuing that activity and, unfortunately, continuing to place those children in danger and continuing to abuse those children,” Whyte said.