State v. Mucia

Nebraska Court of Appeals·Decided March 31, 2015·No. A-14-070·Published

Opinion

Decisions of the Nebraska Court of Appeals STATE v. MUCIA 821 Cite as 22 Neb. App. 821

State of Nebraska, appellee, v. Gregory M. Mucia, appellant.

___ N.W.2d ___

Filed March 31, 2015. No. A-14-070.

1. Criminal Law. Neb. Rev. Stat. § 28-813.01 (Cum. Supp. 2014) provides that it shall be unlawful for a person to knowingly possess any visual depiction of sexually explicit conduct which has a child as one of its participants or portrayed observers.

2. Criminal Law: Evidence: Appeal and Error. In reviewing a sufficiency of the evidence claim, whether the evidence is direct, circumstantial, or a combination thereof, the standard is the same: An appellate court does not resolve conflicts in the evidence, pass on the credibility of witnesses, or reweigh the evidence; such matters are for the finder of fact.

3. ____: ____: ____. The relevant question for an appellate court reviewing a sufficiency of the evidence claim is whether, after viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution, any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt.

4. Convictions: Evidence: Appeal and Error. A conviction will be affirmed, in the absence of prejudicial error, if the evidence admitted at trial, viewed and construed most favorably to the State, is sufficient to support the conviction.

5. Criminal Law: Statutes: Legislature: Intent: Appeal and Error. On appeal, appellate courts give penal statutes a sensible construction, considering the Legislature’s objective and the evils and mischiefs it sought to remedy.

6. Criminal Law: Statutes: Words and Phrases: Appeal and Error. Absent a statutory indication to the contrary, an appellate court gives words in a statute their ordinary meaning; but an appellate court strictly construes penal statutes and does not supply missing words or sentences to make clear that which is indefinite or not there.

7. Criminal Law: Statutes. Ambiguities in a penal statute are resolved in the defendant’s favor.

8. Criminal Law: Intent. Knowingly possessing child pornography, as prohibited by Neb. Rev. Stat. § 28-813.01 (Cum. Supp. 2014), requires a specific intention to possess child pornography.

9. Criminal Law: Trial: Judges. A trial judge sitting without a jury is not required to articulate findings of fact or conclusions of law in criminal cases.

10. Criminal Law: Trial: Judges: Presumptions. In a jury-waived criminal trial, the trial judge is presumed to be familiar with and to have applied the proper rules of law, unless it clearly appears otherwise.

11. Convictions: Evidence: Appeal and Error. A conviction will be affirmed if the properly admitted evidence, viewed and construed most favorably to the State, is sufficient to support the conviction.

12. ____: ____: ____. When reviewing a criminal conviction for sufficiency of the evidence to sustain the conviction, the relevant question for an appellate court is

Decisions of the Nebraska Court of Appeals 822 22 NEBRASKA APPELLATE REPORTS

whether, after viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution, any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt.

Appeal from the District Court for Lancaster County: Karen B. Flowers, Judge. Affirmed.

Sean J. Brennan for appellant.

Jon Bruning, Attorney General, and Melissa R. Vincent for appellee.

Irwin, Inbody, and Pirtle, Judges.

Irwin, Judge.

I. INTRODUCTION

Gregory M. Mucia appeals his conviction for possession of child pornography. On appeal, Mucia asserts that the State failed to adduce sufficient evidence to show that he knowingly possessed the child pornography and challenges the court’s admission of four video files into evidence. We find no merit to Mucia’s assertions on appeal, and we affirm.

II. BACKGROUND

Mucia was charged by information with violating Neb. Rev. Stat. § 28-813.01 (Cum. Supp. 2014), which makes it “unlawful for a person to knowingly possess any visual depiction ” of child pornography. The charge was based on the identification of child pornography files on Mucia’s computer, discovered by a Lincoln Police Department investigator, Corey Weinmaster.

At trial, Mucia did not dispute that evidence of child pornography was found on two of his computers. His defense was that he had not knowingly possessed child pornography; that he had not intended to access child pornography; and that if he located child pornography while searching for adult pornography , he deleted it. Mucia argued at trial that he had not knowingly possessed child pornography, because to do so would require him to have done so in a way that was not accidental or involuntary.

Decisions of the Nebraska Court of Appeals STATE v. MUCIA 823 Cite as 22 Neb. App. 821

Weinmaster testified at trial that he investigates child pornography cases for the Lincoln Police Department, including conducting forensic examinations of computers. He testified that he uses a software program that, through the Internet, searches “IP” addresses of computers using file-sharing software and locates files that have previously been identified as potentially depicting child pornography. He testified that when the program identifies a file, the file is, at that time, actually on the hard drive of the identified computer and available for sharing through a file-sharing software program. He testified that when the software program identifies such a file, the file-sharing program being used by the identified computer also has a unique identification that can also be tracked.

According to evidence adduced at trial, Weinmaster’s investigation was based on identifying persons using peer-to-peer (P2P) software, wherein users install publicly available software that facilitates the trading of digital files. Through such programs, users are able to search for digital files available on other computers and are able to select specific files to be downloaded to the user’s computer. The P2P software uses an algorithm to create a “hash” value, which is a digital signature that allows an investigator to determine “with a precision that exceeds 99.9999 percent certainty” that two files are identical. The hash value of files identified as being available for sharing through P2P software can then be compared with files in a database of known child pornography to determine whether files available for sharing are child pornography.

In October 2011, Weinmaster ran the software program “and identified an IP address that had listed 10 files available for sharing” that had hash values and titles consistent with files in a law enforcement database of known child pornography files. Weinmaster then completed an affidavit for search warrant. According to his affidavit, he reviewed the information associated with four of the hash values and identified files named “r@ygold_boyandgirl 11 yo FUCK!3.26(PTHC KIDSEX}.mpg,” “Best Vicky BJ & Handjob with sound (r@ygold pedo reelkiddymov underage illegal lolita daughter incest xxx ora.mpg,” “! NEW ! (pthc) Veronika Nuevo 2

Decisions of the Nebraska Court of Appeals 824 22 NEBRASKA APPELLATE REPORTS

Nenas_all.mpg,” and “(((KINGPASS))) (pthc) (dark studio) Dark Robbery.mpg.”

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State v. Mucia, (Neb. Ct. App. 2015).

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