New Martinsville resident Joseph Ward will likely be sentenced to at least two years in prison after entering an Alford plea to sex-related crimes against children on July 1, said Marshall County Special Prosecutor Joseph Canestraro.

Wetzel County Circuit Court Judge Richard Wilson presided over the hearing on the date that had been reserved for Ward’s trial on 32 counts of alleged sex crimes against children.

Canestraro said the Alford plea called for Ward to instead plead to one count of use of a minor in filming sexually explicit conduct and one count of distribution and exhibiting of material depicting minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

An Alford plea is a plea that acknowledges there is enough evidence for one to be convicted, but still denies guilt.

Canestraro said Wilson will likely sentence Ward to two years on the first count and five years on the second count with the second count being suspended. This means he likely would serve at least one year in prison with good behavior.

After being released from prison he will be on supervised release for 15 years. He will have to register as a sex offender for life.

Before the sentence is handed down at a later date, a pre-sentence investigation must be conducted by the probation office.

With the plea, Ward is now on supervised bond and must wear a GPS monitor. He is not permitted to have contact with children or own firearms.

“This plea will make it so there’s some children who don’t need to testify,” Canestraro said. “The parents and guardians want to move on from this. An adult would have had to testify and this keeps her from having to relive what happened to her in the past.”

The sexually explicit video that Ward made involved the woman when she was a minor in May 2009.

Canestraro thanked everyone who helped in the investigation.

“I want to thank the Wetzel County Sheriff’s Office and Deputy Michael Owens for his investigation,” he said. “And I want to thank Assistant Prosecutor Andrea Poling for her hard work in the case. I especially want to thank those witnesses who came forward, who had the courage to step forward and help lead us to a resolution of convicting Mr. Ward.”