In a recent case before an Arizona court of appeals, a defendant convicted of sexual exploitation unsuccessfully argued that the evidence at trial was insufficient to support the lower court’s ruling. Originally, the defendant was charged after investigators found child pornography on a laptop in his home. The case went to trial, a jury found the defendant guilty, and the defendant promptly appealed.
Facts of the Case
This case began when investigators in Arizona were alerted to the fact that an IP address in the area had been used to download child sexual abuse material. An alert was placed on that particular IP address, and investigators noticed files of a similar nature were being downloaded on the computer. The investigators obtained a valid warrant and went to search the defendant in this case’s home.
While at the house, the investigators found several laptops. They brought the laptops for a closer look, and they eventually found the child sexual abuse material on one of the computers – specifically, the investigators found nine movie files with child pornography. The laptop did not, however, have any immediately evident connections to the defendant – instead, the username and account information on the computer all suggested that the defendant’s mom owned the device.
Eventually, the defendant’s case went to trial, and he was found guilty as charged.