A jury of 10 men and two women found Alonzo Davis guilty early Friday evening on all 11 counts of possessing child pornography that had been downloaded from a computer.
After the jury recommended a three year sentence on each count, Circuit Judge Jodi Raines Dennis ordered Davis to serve the first three counts consecutively and the remaining eight counts concurrently for a total prison sentence of nine years.
Davis will be remanded to the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office where he will be held at the Adult Detention Center until bed space becomes available with the Department of Corrections.
Davis was charged with 11 counts of possessing child pornography that had been downloaded from a computer. He pleaded innocent.
Investigators reported finding more than 100 minutes of video on four CDs that were located in Davis’ apartment at 2611 W. 34th Ave., as well as photographs on the hard drive of the computer.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
“We’re not denying what was found in the apartment or on the computer,” said Chris Hayes from the Public Defender’s Office, who was representing Davis.”The key is knowledge. Did he know the images were there?”
Hayes claimed that Davis had bought a used computer that was in the shop several times, and while he did have it, computer images would pop up on the screen that he did not seek out.
Davis was arrested after an investigation by the Arkansas State Police Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) unit in October 2010.
In testimony Thursday, State Police Cpl. Doug Estes said he was running a computer program at State Police Headquarters that indicated a specific internet provider address in Pine Bluff had several files containing child pornography.
Estes said investigators obtained a search warrant for Davis’ apartment, and during that search, found four unlabeled CDs that contained videos of child pornography.
The computer was not in the apartment and Davis told Estes he had taken it to Delta Computers on West 28th Avenue. Estes said he seized the hard drive after an initial search indicated the presence of child pornography.
Jefferson County Deputy Prosecutor Jill Reed and Assistant Attorney General Bart Dickinson, who was serving as a special prosecutor on the case, represented the state during the two-day trial before Judge Dennis.
Each of the charges is a Class C felony and Davis could have been sentenced to between three and 10 years on each count, and/or been fined.