United States v. Barry

634 F. App'x 407
Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit·Decided December 17, 2015·No. No. 15-20049·Published·Cited by 7 cases

Opinion

PER CURIAM: *

David Barry was convicted, following a five-day bench trial, of conspiracy to produce child pornography in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2251(a) and (e) and production of child pornography by a parent or legal guardian in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2251(b) and (e). Barry contends that his conviction is not supported by sufficient evidence and that his sentence violates the Double Jeopardy Clause. We affirm.

I.

Barry adopted O.B. and R.B.—two developmentally disabled toddlers—in 2007. As early as 2008, Barry began exploring nudism and visiting nudist websites, through which he would chat with other men. At some point in his chatting, Barry met two men: William Noonan and Tim Whittington. Barry developed a close relationship with Noonan, communicating with him almost daily and making three separate trips to his house in Houston on June 2, June 18, and December 31, 2010. 0.B. and R.B. accompanied Barry on each visit, and Barry testified that he closely supervised O.B. and R.B. during each visit and left them alone with Noonan on only one occasion for at most an hour.1

During this time, the Homeland Security Investigations (“HSI”), an arm of the Department of Homeland Security, was investigating Noonan and Whittington for production and distribution of child pornography. In January 2011, HSI Special Agent Jeffrey Chappell received information connecting Barry’s email and IP addresses to those of Noonan and Whitting-ton, which led Chappell to secure a search [409] warrant for Barry’s residence. In February 2011, HSI agents searched Barry’s residence and seized his laptop computer and camera. Also in February 2011, Chap-pell and HSI agents searched Noonan’s residence and seized his laptop computer, desktop computer, and camera.2

Chappell, a seven-year veteran of the cyber investigations group at HSI and a trained expert in forensic technological examination, analyzed Barry’s and Noonan’s computers and cameras. Chappell’s analysis revealed nude photos of O.B. and R.B.—in some photos the boys were alone, in others Noonan and Barry were nude alongside them. All of the photos were taken with either Noonan’s or Barry’s camera during Barry’s visits to Noonan’s house and were later uploaded to user-created files on Barry’s laptop.3 Based on his experience, Chappell averred that forty-five of the hundreds of photos qualified as child pornography. The district court focused on seven, which are the only ones considered on appeal and which depicted O.B. and R.B. as follows:

• One of Barry’s children is alone in the bathtub. The boy is nude and thrusting his pelvis out of the water, prominently displaying his genitals.
• Noonan and one of Barry’s children are nude in Noonan’s bathroom. Noo-nan is standing behind the child with his arms wrapped around the child’s chest, and their fingers are interlocking. Both are partially bending over. The child’s genitals are exposed. Noo-nan’s genitals are not exposed, but his pelvis is in contact with the child’s buttocks.
• Both of Barry’s children are sleeping on a makeshift bed in Noonan’s bedroom. One child is lying on his side with his legs spread (one leg resting against the bed with the other leg bent and the knee pointing to the ceiling), fully exposing his genitals.
• One of Barry’s children is nude and lying on Noonan’s couch. There is a blanket covering the child’s torso, but his genitals and lower body are exposed.
• One of Barry’s children is nude and lying on Noonan’s couch. A blanket covers part of the child’s arm, but the child is otherwise fully exposed.
• Noonan and both of Barry’s children are nude in Noonan’s bathtub. Noo-nan’s legs are extended the full length of the tub, and one of the children is sitting between Noonan’s legs with his head and back against Noonan’s chest. The other child is sitting at the other end of the bathtub, facing Noonan. Noonan’s hand is on the groin of the child between his legs.
• Noonan and both of Barry’s children are nude in the bathtub. They are in the same positions as in the picture described above. Noon-an’s hands are resting on the child’s thighs rather than his groin.

In addition to the photos of O.B. and R.B., Chappell unearthed substantial information regarding Barry’s life online, including his internet searches and chatroom activity. Although Barry claimed to be exploring family nudism as a potential treatment for O.B.’s and R.B.’s develop[410] mental disabilities, his search history contained no searches regarding the therapeutic value of nudism. The history did, however, contain over seventy searches for the “truenudist.com” website alone and many searches for family-friendly nudist resorts in Texas. Barry’s chatroom activity included over 37,000 instant messages sent by Barry in various chatrooms. It also revealed that he had distributed the photos of his children to other men,4 had discussed taking more nude photos of his children and other men,5 had received photos of other nude children,6 and had made sexually explicit references to children.7

Based on the foregoing facts, Barry was indicted on two counts of conspiracy to produce child pornography in violation of § 2251(a) and (e) and two counts of production of child pornography by a parent or guardian in violation of § 2251(b) and (e). After a five-day bench trial, the district court found Barry guilty on each count. Barry moved for a judgment of acquittal during and after trial, both of which the district court denied. The court then sentenced Barry to 324 months’ imprisonment for each count, to run concurrently, and a special assessment of $100 for each count.8 Barry did not object to the special assessments at sentencing.

II.

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United States v. Barry, 634 F. App'x 407 (5th Cir. 2015).

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