90 Day Fiance alum Michael Eloshway has been found guilty of two child pornography counts.
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U.S. District Judge Patricia Gaughan read the verdict in court, and Michael will be facing up to 20 years in prison. At a minimum, he'll reportedly be sentenced to 17 years and five months behind bars.
Mike's sentencing is scheduled on October 29, and in the meantime, he'll remain free on bond.
After a three-day trial in a Cleveland federal court, jurors deliberated for nearly two hours to reach a verdict.
Michael's mother reportedly broke down crying upon hearing the guilty verdict while Michael showed "little reaction."
Michael's wife Aziza, who starred alongside the former IT specialist on 90 Day Fiance's first season in 2014, reportedly lowered her head upon learning the news. Aziza and Michael share a five-year-old daughter, Olivia Joan, together.
Michael had rejected a plea deal last month offering a shorter sentencing range. If the deal had been accepted, Michael would be facing more like 12-15 years in prison.
Mike was initially indicted on child pornography charges in June 2023, when police had accused him of "knowingly receiving and distributing... depictions of real minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct" between February 2022 and March 2023, according to court documents obtained by In Touch Weekly.
One of the images reportedly featured a girl under the age of 12.
Prosecutors pointed out during Michael's trial that authorities had raided his home in 2023 and found 8,000 images of child pornography on his computer.
RELATED LINK: '90 DAY FIANCE: BEFORE THE 90 DAYS' COUPLES NOW: WHO IS STILL TOGETHER? WHO HAS SPLIT? WHERE ARE THEY NOW? (PHOTOS)
RELATED LINK: '90 DAY FIANCE' COUPLES NOWMichael became a suspect in 2022 when FBI identified 65,000 images of child pornography had been downloaded to his IP address.
"He's addicted to pornography," Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Dangelo said during closing arguments, according to In Touch. "He knew [the tens of thousands of images] were there."
Michael signed a confession, admitting he had downloaded pornography via BitTorrent and searched "teen porn" to find and download images of models 17 years and younger.
"His Internet search requests were generic," Mike's attorney Jay Milano wrote in a court filing on June 18.
"The contraband came as unindexed parts of 'torrents/floods' of data. The contraband was delivered among a small number [of] 'torrents/floods' over time. Those torrent/floods were but a small percentage of total searches over the same period. When discovered, he deleted them."
Michael testified in his own defense and claimed he had only been interested in adult pornography. He alleged that he had stumbled across child pornography three times while using BitTorrent, only to immediate delete the offensive and graphic files.
"I can't describe how much I hated seeing those images," Michael reportedly said in his testimony, adding that agents allegedly pressured him into writing a confession.
"My only concern was being able to see my daughter again. It was a crazy day, my heart was still racing, and I was under investigation for something I never meant to do. But I was worried I would never see my daughter again."
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The couple originally met on a language acquisition website that paired up people attempting to learn each other's language.
A friendship blossomed into a romance once Aziza's application for a work visa was denied, and in Summer 2014, she came to America to live with Mike.
Mike and Aziza then married and she took his last name.
Aziza gave birth to the couple's first child, a baby girl, in January 2019.
"Guess who's here... Little Miss Olivia Joan 01.14.19." she captioned in an Instagram photo showing Mike holding the newborn at the time.
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About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski
