It took less than a half hour for a federal jury to convict a Dickinson man of child pornography charges Wednesday after they watched a 15-minute videotape of the man's crimes.

Todd Zastoupil faces a maximum of 70 years imprisonment and a mandatory minimum of 35 years for videotaping himself having sex and sexual contact with two children, ages 6 and 9, Assistant U.S. Attorney Clare Hochhalter said. The conviction also includes $500,000 in fines.

The children's mother testified in federal court Wednesday that she was home alone more than three months ago when she happened upon one of three unmarked video cassettes. She said what she saw caused her to throw up repeatedly and seek counsel from a neighbor before calling 911 and handing the videotapes over to police.

A Dickinson police officer testified that Zastoupil told him he made the tapes so he wouldn't have to sexually assault the children as often, Hochhalter said. The three videotapes in evidence were at least a half hour long, and the longest was more than two hours.

The victims' mother took a second look at an excerpt of one of the videotapes during the trial. As the tape played, she tearfully identified her children and Zastoupil for the jury, Hochhalter said.

Zastoupil was a registered sex offender at the time of the crimes. He was convicted of corruption of a minor in June 2000 for having consensual sex with a 14-year-old girl.

Zastoupil will be sentenced after a presentence investigation and a psycho-sexual evaluation.

The Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement is investigating whether Zastoupil distributed the video tapes.

(Reach reporter Mike Albrecht at 250-8261 or cops@ndonline.com.)