Galayda sentenced to 24 years in prison on June 26 | Police fire

Jesse Galayda, 33, of High Ridge was sentenced to 24 years in prison after admitting to sexually abusing a child. He was previously sentenced to 17 1/2 years in a federal prison after pleading guilty to possession of child pornography, court records show.

On Wednesday, June 26, Galayda pleaded guilty to first-degree sodomy, sexual exploitation of a minor and three counts of second-degree sodomy. District Judge Brenda Stacey of Jefferson County’s 4th District Court sentenced him to 24 years in prison for the first-degree sodomy charge and seven years each for the sexual exploitation of a minor and the three counts of second-degree sodomy, court documents show.

According to court documents, Galayda will serve his sentence concurrently or at the same time.

The case was handled by Shannon O’Neal, assistant district attorney for Jefferson County.

According to the probable cause statement in the case, Galayda had an inappropriate relationship with the child, who was younger than 16 years old during that time period, from January 2015 to December 2021.

The victim said Galayda recorded the abuse and showed the victim child pornography. Investigators seized Galayda’s desktop computer on May 18, 2022, and found more than 1,000 images containing child pornography, the report said.

Galayda admitted to viewing child pornography on the dark web and said he tried for a while to stop viewing child pornography, the report said.

Galayda pleaded guilty to federal possession of child pornography on April 19, 2023, and U.S. District Judge Matthew T. Schelp sentenced Galayda on July 27, 2023, court documents state.