Utah photographer who touched teen models sentenced to jail
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Pat Reavy, KSL.com
PROVO, Utah (KSL.com) — A Provo photographer convicted of inappropriately touching teenage boys while they posed in their underwear has been sentenced to jail and will be deported after he serves his time.
Kyle Celis Navarrete, 32, pleaded guilty in March in 4th District Court to two counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, a second-degree felony, and four counts of unlawful sexual conduct with a 16- or 17-year-old, a class A misdemeanor. In exchange, several other counts of forcible sodomy and forcible sexual abuse were dismissed.
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In 2017, Navarrete, who owned Island Boys Photography, arranged photo shoots for at least four boys, ages 16 and 17. During those shoots, Navarrete convinced the boys that in order to get a modeling career they needed to include underwear shots in their portfolio. He would then touch the boys’ genitalia under the guise of “adjusting” them for the photos.
Provo police talked with other modeling agencies who said they would never take those types of pictures for a teenager’s portfolio unless they were specifically applying for a swimsuit modeling job.
The Utah County Attorney’s Office had pushed for prison time for Navarrete. Instead, the judge suspended the prison time and sentenced him to a year in jail with credit for the 147 days he has already spent in the Utah County Jail.
After he serves his jail time, he will be turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement and deported back to the Philippines, according to prosecutors. Navarrete entered the United States on a student visa in 2009.
If Navarrete re-enters the United State illegally, it will be considered a violation of his three-year probation, the judge ordered. The judge also ordered that if the maximum sentence in the case were ever imposed due to a probation violation, then Navarrete would serve his two suspended one-to-15-year sentences at the Utah State Prison consecutively.
This article was originally published by KSL.com. It is used here with permission.