ST. GEORGE —A federal parolee and registered sex offender appeared for sentencing on a felony lewdness charge, following an incident reported last year in which officers found the defendant standing on the balcony of a Santa Clara residence “completely naked” in clear view of a mother and her young child.
The defendant, 46-year-old Nathan Michael Hill, of Santa Clara, appeared in 5th District Court Tuesday for sentencing on a third-degree felony lewdness by a registered sex offender with a prior conviction charge. Hill entered a guilty plea during the hearing, and in exchange, a second third-degree felony lewdness charge filed shortly after his arrest was dropped.
District Judge Eric A. Ludlow sentenced Hill to serve six months in the county jail, with the option of an early release to participate in an intensive outpatient sex offender treatment and alcohol program. The suspect was ordered to turn himself in at that jail later that same day to begin serving out his sentence.
The case was filed in connection with an incident reported in late October of last year when officers dispatched to a report of a suspect who was naked on the balcony of a residence, according to charging documents filed at the time of the arrest.
Officers arrived shortly after 4 p.m. and spoke to the caller who said she had gone outside to retrieve her 4-year-old daughter from the backyard, and as she did so, she said she saw a man, later identified as Hill, standing on the balcony completely naked.
Santa Clara-Ivins Police Sgt. Reed Briggs told St. George News at the time of the arrest that the 911 caller yelled at Hill, at which point he dropped down on his stomach and then ran back into his residence.
One of the responding officers arrived to find the suspect “again, fully naked with his buttocks and genitals exposed standing outside on the balcony.” The officer yelled at the man and asked him what he was doing. As soon as the suspect saw the officer, the report stated, the man turned and went back into the residence.
Briggs said that he doubted the suspect had seen the officer before being confronted and said Hill appeared to be intoxicated while speaking to police.
The suspect was arrested and booked into jail on the two felony lewdness charges.
In the meantime, officers confirmed that Hill was a registered sex offender living in the Santa Clara-Ivins area, a requirement that was ordered following his release from federal prison on a 2016 case that was initially filed in 5th District Court involving 17 second-degree felony charges of sexual exploitation of a minor.
In that case, an investigation was launched after information was sent in to the Cyber Tip Line reporting images depicting child pornography involving a toddler approximately 1-2 years old being sexually abused by an unidentified male that were uploaded to an email account belonging to Hill.
During a subsequent search of his home, agents working with the Internet Crimes Against Children task force recovered a digital media card containing 20 photos depicting child pornography, as well as photos of young girls in bathing suits that appeared to have been taken “covertly,” the agent noted in the report.
Four months later the case was picked up by federal prosecutors, and Hill was indicted on one felony count of possession of child pornography, while the state case was dismissed. Hill pleaded guilty to the charge in August of the following year and he was sentenced to serve 60 months in federal prison.
He was released after serving just over three years in federal prison and moved back to Santa Clara in February 2021. Less than eight months after his release, Hill was arrested and subsequently charged.
Hill was then sentenced to serve 14 months in federal prison on the violation and he was released from federal custody in July after serving less than a year.
Court records show that following his release, Hill was placed on 10 years of post-prison supervision and required to comply with sex offender registry requirements.
The case filed in state court also lingered, Washington County Prosecutor Zachary Weiland told St. George News, as the federal case moved through the courts, and prosecutors in Washington County had reason to believe the defendant would serve a minimum of two years on the federal parole violation.
The incident in Santa Clara resulted in three federal parole violations that included two counts of exposing his genitals to a child and a third for drinking alcohol, Weiland said.
When they found out Hill was already out of federal custody on an early release, they wanted to make sure the defendant would be sentenced to jail for the incident in Santa Clara, which is why they made that recommendation during the sentencing hearing.
This report is based on statements from court records, police or other responders and may not contain the full scope of findings. Persons arrested or charged are presumed innocent until found guilty in a court of law or as otherwise decided by a trier-of-fact.
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