FAYETTEVILLE -- A Washington County man was convicted Wednesday evening of viewing or possessing 18 images of child pornography on computer hard drives.
James Edward Whitney, 47, will be sentenced today in Washington County Circuit Court.
Whitney was charged with 20 counts. Each count is punishable by three to 10 years in prison and fines of up to $10,000.
Evidence in the case was largely circumstantial. James and Tina Whitney had a domestic altercation in August 2012 and eight days later Tina Whitney brought computers and several hard drives to the Washington County Sheriff's Office, she testified Wednesday.
Whitney said she suspected there may be child porn on the computers because of inappropriate online chats she discovered James Whitney was having on a computer.
The computers and hard drives were analyzed at the Arkansas State Crime Lab which found 20 images and chats on two of the computers containing what appear to be underage females engaged in sexual explicit activity. The images were from 2009 and 2010.
The defense argued there was no proof James Whitney possessed the computers or the images and insinuated Tina Whitney may have planted the images because she wanted James out of her life.
"Disgusting, disturbing and despicable," David Hogue said of the images. "That does not mean my client is guilty of possessing them."
Prosecutors maintained only James and Tina Whitney had access to the computers at their home, which constituted constructive possession.
"Ask yourself if someone would wait over two years," Kevin Metcalf, deputy prosecuting attorney told jurors. "If she was setting him up to get his stuff, she did a pretty good job in 2009 and 2010. Use your common sense."
Metcalf said the case, filed in 2012, took so long to get to trial because James Whitney changed lawyers several times and caused other delays.
NW News on 05/12/2016