Katrina Louise Huston, 34, Ryder, pleaded guilty on Monday to Class A felony gross sexual imposition for sending an illegal image of a teenage girl over the internet to a man.

The state and the defense had worked out a plea deal that called for Huston to serve no additional jail time, according to statements made in court, but North Central District Court Judge Gary Lee ordered that Huston be taken into custody and held until a pre-sentence investigation is completed, which probably won’t happen until April or May. Lee said he would not permit a defendant to remain free on bond after pleading guilty to a Class A felony. He set a tentative sentencing date for April 30.

Huston entered her plea on an “open plea basis” meaning that Judge Lee doesn’t have to accept a plea agreement and can sentence her to anything up to the maximum sentence, which is 20 years for a Class A felony.

Huston had been free on bond prior to her court appearance on Monday. According to statements made in court, she has already completed a mental health evaluation and a parenting class.

According to court documents, Huston had been added to a group discussion in October 2019 with Derrick Stephen Walker, 45, and Katie Lynn Heidinger, 32. The group exchanged images and videos containing child pornography. Walker had previously asked Huston for nude pictures of two teenage girls. Huston refused at first but Walker kept pressuring her. She eventually took short videos of herself touching a girl over her clothing and pulling down her shirt to expose the upper parts of her breasts. The images were taken while the young girl was asleep, according to the court documents. Huston sent the video to Walker for his “sexual gratification” but stopped communicating with him when he asked her to arrange for him to have sex with teenage girls. She told authorities that she had seen Walker and Heidinger exchange child pornography in the Snapchat group but Huston denied that she participated in that group.

Both Walker and Heidinger were indicted on child sexual exploitation charges in U.S. District Court. Heidinger accepted a plea deal on six charges of sexual exploitation of a child that calls for her to serve 30 years in prison, followed by 10 years of supervised probation. She had originally been charged in district court in McHenry County with sexually abusing three small children, taking video recordings and still images of the abuse on her cell phone, and sending the images to Walker via SnapChat between August 2019 and January 2020. Heidinger is in custody at the Ward County Jail. She is scheduled to be sentenced at a later date in federal court.

Walker is scheduled to go to trial in federal court on May 17 on the child sexual exploitation charges. He is in custody at the Heart of America Correctional Center in Rugby.