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ALTOONA, Pa. (WTAJ) — An Altoona woman who helped Stephen Apostolu in his efforts to make child pornography and trafficking drugs and underage girls will spend between 9 ½ and 25 years in prison.
Kara Tornatore, 31, pleaded guilty this summer to numerous child pornography and sex crimes involving underage girls and on Friday, two Apostolu’s and Tornatore’s victims appeared in Blair Court to confront her during the sentencing by Judge Daniel Milliron, something District Attorney Pete Weeks said was important.
“I think that was very helpful for them to try to rebuild and move on,” Weeks said, adding he was grateful the judge gave the victims an opportunity to appear in-person for the sentencing.
Tornatore will also be a lifetime sex offender registrant under Megan’s Law and spend five years on probation after she gets out of prison.
Apostolu and Tornatore used methamphetamine in 2017 and 2018 to further their child pornography and sex trafficking ambitions with Apostolu not only selling the drug but supplying it to other adults in the Logan Hills apartment complex in order to get them to get him young girls to photograph and video.
One of those adults, Amy Brosch, introduced Apostolu to a 17-year-old girl he shot a sex video with and tried to talk into becoming a prostitute because she would be worth a lot of money because she was young. Brosch is now serving an eight-to-20-year state prison sentence.
“His goal was not only to photograph and video these girls but also traffic these girls,” Weeks said, adding Blair County is also fortunate to have a tenacious prosecutor such as Assistant District Attorney Nichole Smith.
Weeks pointed out the case is another example of the great cooperation between different law enforcement agencies. That level of cooperation allowed The District Attorney’s office to get a more comprehensive look at the scope of their crimes and ultimately, a longer sentence for each of them.
Apostolu was sentenced in December to 12-25 years in prison and will also be required to register as a sex offender for life.
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