FRANKFORT, Ky. - A Lawrenceburg, Kentucky man was convicted Wednesday by a federal jury in Frankfort for receiving, distributing, and possessing child pornography.
After deliberating for an hour, following a two-day trial, the jury convicted 48-year old William Richard Smith of seven counts of receipt, one count of distribution, and one count of possession of visual depictions involving minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct.
According to testimony at trial, Smith distributed 25 child pornographic videos to an investigator with the Kentucky Office of Attorney General (OAG), Cyber Crimes Branch, who was performing an undercover investigation using an online peer-to-peer network. After identifying Smith as the individual who distributed these images, a search warrant was executed on Smith’s residence, during which several electronic devices were seized. Evidence from the forensic examination of those devices revealed that, in addition to distributing child pornography, Smith possessed 1,622 sexually explicit visual depictions of minors as of the date of the search warrant and had been receiving those visual depictions using a peer-to-peer network since May 2016.
Smith was indicted in February 2019.
Robert M. Duncan, Jr., United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky, John Condon, Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), and Andy Beshear, Kentucky Attorney General, jointly announced the conviction.
The investigation was conducted by the Kentucky OAG Cyber Crimes Branch and HSI. The U.S. Attorney’s Office was represented in the case by Assistant U.S. Attorneys David Marye and Mary Melton.
Smith will appear for sentencing on April 1, 2020. He faces a maximum of 20 years in prison for each count. However, the Court must consider the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and the applicable federal sentencing statutes before imposing a sentence.
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Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
