Gastel pleaded guilty to sexual exploitation of minors.
In the agreement, Gastel acknowledged that he committed the crimes for which he pleaded guilty and that it went down the way authorities said it did.
The following description of Gastel's crime was included in the plea agreement document:
On July 13, 2013, Carterville Police Deputy Chief John Redden conducted an interview of nineteen year-old Jane Doe at her home in Lamar, Missouri. She reported that she had been sexually victimized by the defendant, Charles Dominic Gastel, repeatedly, beginning when she was ten years old.
Jane Doe reported that during some of the assaults, the defendant used a digital video recorder to record them engaging in sexual acts.
On July 17, 2013, the defendant was interviewed at his residence by the investigators. The defendant was advised of his Miranda rights and questioned. The defendant initially told the investigators that he did not have videos on his computer.
Deputy Chief Redden then asked the defendant for consent to search his computer. Ther defendant replied that he wanted to talk to a lawyer because he had files on his computer that would end his teaching career. The defendant was then placed under arrest.
On July 18, 2013, Deputy Chief Redden applied for and received a warrant to search the defendant’s residence for computers, cameras and related digital devices. A forensic preview of the digital media seized during the warrant yielded the discovery of several video files depicting the defendant sexually assaulting Jane Doe, who was then 16 years-old. The camera used to film the illicit depictions in question and the computer, used to store said depictions, were manufactured outside the State of Missouri.
No sentencing date has been set.
