Poulsbo Man Sentenced by Judge Ferguson-Brown to 34 Months in Prison for Possessing Child Sexual Abuse Material

A 25-year-old Poulsbo man who admitted to collecting child sexual abuse material over a three-year period was sentenced Monday in Kitsap County Superior Court to 34 months in state prison, a fraction of the 10-year statutory maximum the offense carries.

Judge Cadine Ferguson-Brown imposed the sentence on James David Manzanares on July 27, after he pleaded guilty to two counts of Possession of Depictions of a Minor Engaged in Sexually Explicit Conduct in the First Degree, both involving children under 13. 

The two 34-month terms will run concurrently, followed by 36 months of community custody supervised by the Department of Corrections.

The prison term matched the recommendation of Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Barbara Dennis and the Department of Corrections. 

Manzanares has been in custody since his arrest on May 29, 2025, and will receive credit for the roughly 14 months he has already served against the 34-month term.

A Years-Long Digital Trail

According to the Certificate of Probable Cause filed by Detective Timothy Flint of the Kitsap County Sheriff's Office, the case was built on nearly a dozen CyberTips submitted to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children by X Corp, Google, Dropbox and the messaging platform Kik. 

Investigators linked the reports to accounts using the name "Nova Astralis," an alias court records say Manzanares used and preferred over his legal name.

Detectives described videos and images depicting the abuse of children they estimated to be as young as 4 or 5 years old. 

One CyberTip from X, according to the probable cause statement, included a chat log in which the account sent a sexually explicit image to a user who described themselves as 16 years old.

Comcast subscriber records tied uploads of the material to the family home on Beach Drive NE in Poulsbo, where court records say Manzanares kept his own separate internet service. Detectives served a search warrant there on May 29, 2025, and arrested him. The charging period ran from June 1, 2022, to May 29, 2025. 

At the time of his arrest, Manzanares had recently worked as a part-time office assistant at Olympic College in Bremerton, employment the pre-sentence report says was terminated because of the charges.

An Earlier Investigation Ended Without Charges

Court records show this was not law enforcement's first look at Manzanares. In 2021, the Kitsap County Sheriff's Office investigated six CyberTips connected to the same phone number and accounts. 

That case was referred to the Kitsap County Prosecutor's Office, but according to the pre-sentence report, no charges were ever brought, and the statute of limitations on the 2021 conduct has since expired.

"Just About Every Day"

In an interview for the pre-sentence investigation, Manzanares told a corrections officer that his viewing habits started with adult pornography, progressed to animated material and ultimately escalated to real child sexual abuse material, which he said he viewed "just about every day."

The report stated that it was "troubling" that Manzanares had shared explicit material with minors on social media and file-sharing platforms, conduct the officer said showed an attraction that exceeded his perceived risk of consequences.

The Sentence and Its Conditions

Judge Ferguson-Brown adopted the recommended conditions, which require Manzanares to register as a sex offender, complete a state-certified sexual deviancy treatment program, submit to polygraph testing at his own expense, and have no contact with minors under 16 without prior authorization. 

He may not possess internet-capable devices, use social media, or use file-sharing services without approval and monitoring by his community corrections officer.