Reback said it's hard to say whether he ever will walk out.

"I'm not God, and I have no way to predict the life of a man," she said after the hearing. "But this particular man has suffered such severe injuries from his service in Vietnam until today. I don't know that he will finish this prison sentence."

Hoagland's prison time on the local charges will run concurrent to a seven-year sentence for similar charges in St. Lucie County.

More than 600 images of child pornography were found on his computer, Hillsborough County sheriff's detectives have said. Court records show that two pictures of partially clothed children appear to have been taken by Hoagland himself.

Hoagland's life can be told though his anguish, Reback said.

He was born into poverty, the son of an abusive alcoholic. He left home at 12 to work on a farm.

In Vietnam, where he served two tours as a paratrooper, he broke his legs and suffered a head injury. Years of post-traumatic stress disorder left him battered physically and mentally, Reback said.

In 1999 and 2002, Hoagland endured crashes from a parasail and an ultralight that resulted in metal pins holding his spine together.

In 2001, he was struck by lightning, after which he told the Tribune that he had no idea how it did not kill him.

In 2003, when his Veterans Affairs psychiatrist retired, Hoagland gave up on therapy and discontinued his medication, Reback said.

"He took every opportunity to live distracted by his fantasy life and holed up with his computer to the exclusion of almost everything else," Reback said.

After his arrest, his wife and son tried to drive from New Jersey to see him here. An accident in South Carolina killed them both.

Hoagland petitioned the court for pretrial release so he could attend their funerals. Although the judge was receptive to the idea, it could not be arranged.

At Thursday's hearing, Hoagland's daughter appeared in her Army captain's uniform to plead for leniency.

Rachael Hoagland, who recently returned to Tampa from service in the Middle East, said her father is the only family she has left. She said she and Hoagland have seen "unimaginable actions" in combat situations and she understands his pain.

"We will do anything to keep our minds off what we saw, and sometimes we don't fit in socially because of it," she said.

Reporter Thomas W. Krause can be reached at (813) 259-7698 or tkrause@tampatrib.com.