Man sentenced after pleading guilty to possession of child sex abuse material

IDAHO FALLS — A 31-year-old Idaho Falls man was sentenced to 10 years in prison after admitting to having child sexual abuse material.

Daniel Maras was originally charged in May with two felony counts of possession of child sexual exploitative materials.

In February, Maras accepted a plea agreement that dismissed one of the felony counts in exchange for a guilty plea.

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A cybertip was filed and investigators found thousands of pornographic images on Mara’s personal devices.

On April 9, 2025, a search warrant was executed and he admitted to owning the email account attached to the cybertip and having a pornography problem.

This problem led him down a “rabbit hole” into viewing “forbidden” things.

District Judge Amanda Ulrich sentenced Maras to four years fixed and six years indeterminate. She also ordered that Maras to be placed in sex offender treatment during the period of his sentence.

He is also required to register as a sex offender.

“I hope you reflect on that and realize that these girls are someone’s daughter, they’re someone’s friend or someone’s sister,” Ulrich told Maras.

‘The possibility of rehabilitation’

Maras’s attorney, Matthew Blanksma, recommended that Maras serve a retained jurisdiction with an underlying sentence of two years fixed and three years indeterminate.

The reason for this recommendation is he said Maras has taken accountability since his arrest and understood that he has a problem.

Since his arrest, Blanksma said that Maras has completed numerous courses while at the jail regarding sexual addiction, anger management and other courses.

“The purposes of justice are for public safety foremost, followed by the possibility of rehabilitation,” Blanksma said.

Responding to the presentence investigation report and his psychosexual evaluation, Blanksma said that Maras is listed at a low level to reoffend. However, his psychosexual evaluation lists him at a high to moderate risk of reoffending.

Blanksma said the recommendation he gave is so that Maras can be placed in an intensive treatment program and that Maras is willing to participate in those treatments.

‘Severe depreciation of the seriousness of the offense’

Deputy Attorney General Denise Monn took issue with the recommendation and with the criminal past of Maras.

She noted that Maras’s acknowledgment of having a “pornography problem” does not represent the issues that brought him into the criminal court.

She said that while pornography often refers to two consenting adults, this explicit material was the recording of the sexual abuse of children.

Looking at the details of his arrest, Monn said that while Maras argued that he never downloaded thousands of images of explicit content, he would just view them, it is a misconception of the facts.

“This is a severe depreciation of the seriousness of the offense that brings him before this court,” Monn said.

Another issue Monn had with Maras was his criminal past. She said that the man has a prior sexual offense on his record that involved children when he was a juvenile.

When he was convicted of these crimes, he was placed on sex offender treatment and served lengthy periods of incarceration. Monn said that none of these deterrents actually helped in preventing Maras from reoffending once again.

A search of Maras on the state and national registry does not appear in those records.

Monn recommended that Maras serve 10 years with four of those years in prison and six indeterminate.

While there were no victim impact statements provided in this case, Monn said that the court is aware that the victims in the explicit content face trauma, post-traumatic stress disorder, and an increased risk of suicide.

Maras statement

Before being sentenced, Maras told the court that he knew what he did was wrong and that his addiction to pornography got the better of him.

“I do recognize… how it harmed those victims,” Maras said. “I believe treatment would definitely be beneficial, and I understand that I do (need to) be punished.”

Ulrich’s comments

Ulrich said before handing down her sentence that, looking at the presentence investigation and psycho sexual evaluation, Maras’s prior sexual offenses were significant and extremely disturbing.

As well as the placement of the evaluation, placing him in a high and moderate risk to reoffend, and that there is a need for intense sex offender treatment. However, despite the treatment Maras had already received, it seems it had little to no effect.

Looking at the facts of his arrest, Maras came into law enforcement’s radar due to him uploading the explicit images and sending them to another person online.

“I do want to emphasize that there are real victims here, these girls, the children, and the materials you access, they’re real people,” Ulrich said. “By accessing those materials, you’re abusing those girls every time you access them. In that abuse is something that lasts a lifetime.”