CASPER — A 60-year-old Casper man facing sentencing Thursday on child pornography and drug charges fired his attorney, got him back and learned that his attempt to withdraw his guilty plea would not succeed.
But Mark Chanez gets to spend some more time free on his $75,000 bond after his reappointed defense attorney Kurt Infanger told Natrona County District Judge Catherine Wilking that he was not prepared to represent his client at the sentencing hearing.
Wilking agreed with Chief Deputy District Attorney Blaine Nelson that Chanez’s attempt to withdraw his plea came late in court proceedings.
Chanez on June 18 entered a plea deal with Nelson where he pleaded guilty through an Alford plea — which allows defendants to admit guilt to charges while maintaining they are innocent of the crimes — to six counts of sexual exploitation of children and one count of possession of a controlled substance.
The state agreed to cap its sentence request at 15 years for the child exploitation charges and that the sentence on a possession of controlled substance charge involving methamphetamine would run concurrent to the sentencing for possession of child pornography.
In return for the plea, Nelson also agreed to drop two other possession of a controlled substance charges.
Thursday in court, Chanez stood beside Infanger in a sweatshirt and jeans as Wilking tried to sort out the motion Chanez had filed to change his plea and a motion from his attorney Infanger to withdraw from the case after being fired by Chanez.
“We obviously need to take those matters up,” Wilking said.
Motion To Withdraw
Chanez told the judge that Infanger did not provide the defense he wanted by arguing that another person put the child pornography images on his phone. He also asserted that there was “evidence” Infanger ignored on a Google drive and Spectrum site.
“At the time, I didn’t know this was happening. I was asleep,” he said.
Nelson argued that Wyoming law states the defendant has “the burden of establishing a fair and just reason for withdrawal of a plea before sentence is imposed.”
Nelson said Chanez’s “theory” of planted evidence on his phone would be countered by the evidence uncovered by the investigation. Nelson pointed out that he entered his guilty plea on June 18 and his motion to withdraw his guilty plea came 45 days later.
Nelson also characterized Infanger as a “well-practiced, respected, member of the bar who has been working in Wyoming for 25 years.” He said Infanger served Chanez well, leading up to Chanez’s decision to accept the plea agreement.
Chanez also was instructed and advised prior to entering the plea deal and was told the consequences of pleading guilty, Nelson argued. He said Chanez pleaded guilty and waived his rights.
Nelson argued there was no “fair and just reason” for him to withdraw his plea.
Wilking went through the law and the steps needed for a defendant to withdraw their guilty plea and said that Chanez’s statements about his guilt had “morphed and vacillated” through the various hearings.
Delayed Motion
She also agreed that Chanez delayed his motion to withdraw his plea and that the motion could not be taken up until the already scheduled sentencing hearing due to the court’s schedule.
Wilking also told Chanez that Infanger was with him advising him through the Alford guilty plea hearing, and that she, herself, took time during that hearing to ensure that Chanez understood what he was doing.
The judge ruled that Chanez could not withdraw his plea and then asked Chanez if he wanted Infanger reappointed for his sentencing which she intended to proceed with on Thursday.
Infanger told the judge that Chanez “made it very clear that he no longer wanted my representation.”
“He said I was ‘fired,’” Infanger said.
Wilking told the defendant that he could either represent himself or have Infanger reappointed to represent him at his sentencing.
“I would be happy to have him represent me,” Chanez said, adding that he wanted the court to understand that “somebody else put this on my phone” referring to more than 1,000 images of erotica and child pornography that were found during the police investigation all linked to him.
“I don’t have a history of this,” Chanez said.
Infanger told the court that evidence for his client’s argument “just doesn’t exist.”
Wilking told Chanez she would not “be monkeying around with this.”
In the end, Chanez agreed he wanted Infanger to represent him. Infanger told the judge that he had not gone over the pre-sentence investigation report with his client and was not prepared to represent him at his sentencing.
The judge then agreed to reset the sentencing hearing.
The arrest affidavit filed by Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation agents against Chanez states their investigation began with a cyber tip from Google on March 26, 2024, where an individual uploaded 190 files of “apparent child pornography.”
The Investigation
A search warrant of online activity found 48 files depicting child pornography that included videos of adults involved in sex acts with children and at least 1,083 files depicting child erotica. The accounts related to the activity pointed investigators to Chanez, the affidavit states.
Agents obtained a warrant to search Chanez and his vehicle, which they did Nov. 20.
“Chanez was reluctant to be truthful with agents regarding his involvement with child pornography, and his story changed several times throughout the interview,” the arrest affidavit states. “Chanez initially provided the wrong passcode to his (phone). … Chanez later provided the correct passcode.”
Searches of Chanez’s cellphone found six videos of children in sex acts including rape. During an interview with agents, Chanez allegedly told them he was “collecting” the files from Facebook so he could later report those files to Facebook.
Chanez also told agents that he had attempted to report child pornography files to the Casper Police Department. A search of Casper police records showed “Chanez had no call involvements whatsoever in the local police database regarding him ever attempting to report child pornography files,” the affidavit states.
The police affidavit in the case also stated that Chanez’s girlfriend told officers that Chanez would only leave his cell phone alone when he went to the bathroom but often took it with him into the bathroom. She said Chanez had all of his electronic devices’ passcode protected and that he encouraged her to do the same.
While executing the search warrant on Chanez, agents also found controlled substances in his living room that included small packages of methamphetamine, small packages of psilocybin mushrooms and 13.5 grams of marijuana.
Chanez “admitted” the drugs inside the residence belonged to him, the affidavit states.
Dale Killingbeck can be reached at dale@cowboystatedaily.com.
