Jalen Kitna. (Mugshot: Alachua County Jail)
The former backup quarterback for the University of Florida pleaded guilty on Wednesday to disorderly conduct charges in exchange for prosecutors dropping the child pornography charges against him, according to The Orlando Sentinel. Jalen Kitna won't have to register as a sex offender because did not admit to a sex crime.
Eighth Judicial Circuit Judge Susan Miller-Jones reportedly sentenced him to separate six-month terms of probation for each of the second-degree misdemeanor counts of disorderly conduct. The court will release him from the second set of probation if he follows the terms of the plea agreement.
In court, Kitna, the son of retired NFL quarterback Jon Kitna, voiced an apology to his family, friends, and people who care about him.
"The valuable lessons that I've learned through this whole deal have been very helpful," he reportedly said. "I'm looking forward to applying those things and moving forward."
"My hope is that we never cross paths again," Miller-Jones told Jalen Kitna in court. "Go do something great with the rest of your life."
Police in Gainesville, Florida, said that Jalen Kitna shared two illicit images on the instant messaging platform Discord.
"Detective Montague contacted Kitna at the residence and interviewed him," authorities said last year. "Kitna stated that he remembered sharing the two images (CSAM) but believed them to be 'legal,' since he found them online. Kitna advised that he realized he should not have shared those two images, based on the reaction from the other Discord user that he shared them with. Kitna advised shortly after that, his Discord account was deactivated and that he assumed someone reported him to Discord. Kitna stated that he received an email from Discord stating that his account was deactivated due to violation of the terms of service."
Investigators seized Kitna's electronic devices for the search warrant. They said they found three more illicit images.
Those were pictures of post-pubescent girls, said Darry Lloyd, chief investigator for the state attorney's office, in the Sentinel report. Investigators could not reach a conclusion about a fourth girl.
"The behavior of a 19-year-old looking at another teenager is not abnormal behavior," he said. "If there was a sex act involved, then you have criminal behavior. This was an image."
Investigators did not discover any more evidence on his computer and mobile devices. A psychiatric evaluation found there to be nothing deviant about his behavior, Lloyd said.
"It's not like he was collecting images," Lloyd reportedly said.
Kitna's attorney called the plea deal "the right result."
"What we've got here today is a result that's fair, and the right result," Kitna's attorney Ron Kozlowski told the Sentinel after the verdict. "Obviously the state agrees, and we feel good about that. This is going to give Jalen an opportunity to move on to the next step, whatever that is."
