United States v. Novak, No. 16-1911 (8th Cir. 2017)
Annotate this CaseThe Eighth Circuit affirmed defendant's conviction and sentence for interstate transportation of child pornography and possession of child pornography. The court held that the district court did not commit plain error when it permitted the government to introduce an FBI Special Agent's testimony describing adult pornographic materials found on his laptop and testimony describing images saved to the laptop. In this case, the challenged testimony and exhibits were clearly relevant to the key disputed issue at trial: whether defendant was guilty of knowing possession and interstate transportation of child pornography found on his encrypted computer devices. The district court did not commit plain error by providing the jury a willful blindness, or deliberate indifference, instruction. Finally, defendant's below-Guidelines sentence of 144 months in prison was substantively reasonable.
Court Description: Loken, Author, with Colloton and Kelly, Circuit Judges] Criminal case - Criminal law and sentencing. In prosecution for possession of child pornography, it was not error to admit evidence that deviant adult pornography was found on defendant's computer as the evidence helped establish knowing possession of child pornography in common encrypted folders and was highly relevant to disproving defendant's defense that the downloads were done by some other party; no error in giving a willful blindness instruction; below-guidelines-range sentence was not substantively unreasonable. Judge Kelly, dissenting.
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