COLDWATER, MI (WTVB) – A criminal case involving a Coldwater man who has been charged with being in possession and distributing child pornography with a computer has been bound over to Branch County Circuit Court.
45-year-old Matthew Collins waived his Branch County District Court Preliminary Exam that was scheduled for Tuesday after he was charged with two counts of child abusive activity or material as well as a charge of using a computer to commit a crime.
A plea agreement has apparently been worked out and a plea hearing has been scheduled for April 3 in Circuit Court.
According to court documents, the charges were filed following an investigation by the Michigan State Police after they got a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children concerning alleged conversations Collins had on the social media platform that at the time was known as Twitter.
Collins was sentenced in January 2017 to serve 58 months to 15 years in the Michigan Department of Corrections after entering a guilty plea to a charge of being in possession of child sexually abusive material as a fourth time habitual offender.
Collins was placed on parole in December 2021 after serving the minimum sentence of four years and ten months.
His criminal record which includes eight convictions goes back to 1998.
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