Austin man sentenced to prison in child porn case

An Austin man with a history of sex crimes was sentenced to prison in federal court Friday.

Phillip Arlan Koontz, 53, will serve 20 years in prison for distributing child pornography. Koontz pleaded guilty to the crime in January.

In April 2018, Koontz began chatting online with an undercover federal agent posing as a 13-year-old girl, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Koontz sent the agent “multiple images containing sexually explicit content involving minors,” says the release.

Koontz was also in possession of 478 sexually explicit images that depicted minors, including prepubescent minors.  Investigators say he Koontz falsely represented that the images were of his daughter and her friends

Koontz has previously been convicted of second-degree criminal sexual conduct in Mower County, according to the release.