Man gets probation after videoing minors

A Jefferson City man who had been charged with exploiting a minor in April 2013 has pleaded guilty to a reduced charge.

Delaney Thomas, 19, of 2709 Covey Lane, pleaded guilty to a charge of second-degree invasion of privacy, a misdemeanor. He had been charged with two counts of sexual exploitation of a minor.

For his guilty plea, Thomas must complete two years of unsupervised probation.

A Cole County Sheriff's Department probable cause statement shows the victim's father told authorities that his juvenile daughter was 14 at the time of the incident.

The father was contacted by Thomas' ex-girlfriend in regards to finding four videos Thomas had taken without consent of the juvenile and her sister, who was 17 at the time, in various states of nudity.

The victims and their parents met with the ex-girlfriend who showed them the videos, which had been taken through cracks between window coverings in the girls' bedroom after dark as they undressed.

The ex-girlfriend said Thomas was using an old cell phone of hers, and she only recently discovered it was still backing up data to her email account.

The four videos were later found to have been taken in March and April.

Thomas' ex-girlfriend said she confronted Thomas about the videos, and he said he regretted what he had done and that he had deleted the videos.

The ex-girlfriend said she had given Thomas 24 hours to tell his parents and apologize to the victims, which reportedly he had not done.

A search warrant was served at Thomas' residence, and the phone in question was seized along with several other devices capable of storing media/data.