United States v. Edward Lee Edens, Jr.

380 F. App'x 880
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
DecidedMay 26, 2010
Docket09-15031
StatusUnpublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 380 F. App'x 880 (United States v. Edward Lee Edens, Jr.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Edward Lee Edens, Jr., 380 F. App'x 880 (11th Cir. 2010).

Opinion

PER CURIAM:

Lee Edens appeals his convictions and sentence of 216 months of imprisonment for transporting, receiving, and possessing child pornography. 18 U.S.C. § 2252A(a)(1), (a)(2), (a)(5)(B). Edens challenges the sufficiency of the evidence, the denial of his motion to dismiss the charge of possessing child pornography, the enhancement of his sentence based on the number of pornographic images he possessed, and the reasonableness of his sentence. We affirm.

I. BACKGROUND

On August 10, 2005, Agent Steven Forrest of the Federal Bureau of Investigation accessed an internet chat room to communicate with persons interested in child pornography. Forrest chatted with a person using the screen name Kingsbrewer, who forwarded three emails containing child pornography that he had received on August 9, 2005, from a person using the screen name Cartoonstradeer. The emails contained video recordings of young girls performing oral sex on a young boy, fondling male genitalia, and performing oral sex and submitting to attempted sexual intercourse by an adult male.

On August 23, 2005, Forrest contacted Cartoonstradeer. Cartoonstradeer said *882 that he traded pornography of “all kinds, all ages,” and he emailed Forrest a video recording of a young girl dancing and partially disrobing. After Forrest stated that he was not a law enforcement officer, Car-toonstradeer forwarded to Forrest a video recording of an adult man masturbating and ejaculating on the mouth of a girl who appeared to be no more than five years old.

Forrest subpoenaed records regarding Cartoonstradeer’s account with America On Line. Forrest learned that Edens had registered his screen name as Cartoonstra-deer; the IP address for the account belonged to Edens; Edens used an address in Daleville, Alabama; and the account was paid with Edens’s VISA credit card. The records showed that Cartoonstradeer accessed the internet on August 9, 2005, and August 23, 2005.

Kingsbrewer sent child pornography to Forrest and Cartoonstradeer on three occasions. On August 24, 2005, Kingsbrewer emailed to Forrest and Cartoonstradeer 12 images of child pornography. On September 2, 2005, Kingsbrewer forwarded to Forrest and Cartoonstradeer an email that contained nine photographs. Five of the photographs depicted intercourse between adult men and girls ranging from five to twelve years old, digital penetration of a young girl, and two young girls masturbating each other. Two other photographs depicted an adult man with a child who appeared to be no more than three years old and a nude man with a young female whose genitalia was exposed. On September 6, 2005, Kingsbrewer emailed to Forrest and Cartoonstradeer 45 images that depicted young girls engaging in sexual acts with adults and children and exposing their genitalia.

On October 25, 2005, Forrest and other federal agents executed a warrant to search Edens’s apartment. Agents discovered a computer that contained several images of child pornography and seized the computer. Agent Tab Clardy spoke to Edens’s neighbor and employer, Doug No-pens, who said that Edens was a professional truck driver who used a laptop computer to track his mileage. Agents did not find a laptop computer in Edens’s apartment.

The next day, Edens agreed to meet with Clardy in Dothan, Alabama. Edens said that he did not complete high school and he was not a proficient reader. Edens stated that he used the screen name Car-toonstradeer and had viewed child pornography over the internet in the past. After he waived his right to counsel, Edens admitted that he had accessed and traded child pornography through chat rooms and had viewed images involving infants and young children.

In March 2007, a forensic examiner searched Edens’s computer for child pornography. The examiner discovered 611 images that included pictures of young females engaged in sexual acts with adult men and 17 video recordings. Among the recordings were videos of a girl who appeared to be 12 or 13 years old dancing provocatively and of one young girl digitally penetrating another young girl. Many of the images discovered on Edens’s computer were attached to emails sent to screen user Cartoonstradeer, and the examiner found emails Cartoonstradeer had received from Kingsbrewer. Three of the images found on Edens’s computer matched photographs that Cartoonstra-deer had emailed Forrest. At least eight of the images were identified as photographs taken of two sisters when they were seven and nine years old while they were being raped by them stepfather.

The government charged Edens for six crimes related to his possession, receipt, and distribution of child pornography. At trial, the government introduced testimony *883 from Forrest and other agents about their investigation, the examination of Edens’s computer, and the child pornography discovered on the computer. Edens elicited information from government witnesses and introduced testimony from his employer’s payroll clerk, his daughters, and acquaintances to support his theory that other people had downloaded the child pornography onto his computer. Edens did not testify. A jury found Edens guilty of six crimes: transporting child pornography on August 9, 2005, and August 23, 2005; receiving child pornography on August 24, 2005, September 2, 2005, and September 6, 2005; and possessing child pornography on October 25, 2005.

Edens moved to dismiss the charge of possessing child pornography. He argued that his convictions for receipt and possession violated the Double Jeopardy Clause. The district court denied Edens’s motion based on our decision in United States v. Bobb, 577 F.3d 1366, 1375 (11th Cir.2009), in which we held that the defendant was not subject to multiple punishments for the same crimes when he was convicted of receiving and possessing different images of child pornography in November 2004 and August 2005. The district court found that the government “took steps to clarify that [Edens’s] possession and receipt charges were based on different images,” and that “even without the three overlapping images, over 600 images and 17 videos still remained to support the possession charge.”

The presentence investigation report listed a base offense level of 22, United States Sentencing Guideline § 2G2.2(a)(2) (Nov.2004), and increased that level by 18 points. The report recommended a four-level enhancement because Edens’s offenses involved materials that portrayed sadistic or masochistic acts, id. § 2G2.2(b)(3)(B), and a five-level enhancement because the offenses involved more than 600 images, id. § 2G2.2(b)(7)(D). With a criminal history of I, the report listed a guideline range between 292 and 365 months of imprisonment. The report stated that Edens faced a maximum statutory sentence of 20 years for his convictions for distribution and receipt, and a maximum statutory sentence of 10 years for his conviction for possession of child pornography.

Edens objected to the presentence report. Edens argued that the five-point enhancement resulted in a sentence that was disproportionate to his crimes. Edens requested that the district court impose a sentence of no more than 60 months of imprisonment.

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Related

United States v. Schaff
838 F. Supp. 2d 1376 (S.D. Georgia, 2011)
Edens v. United States
178 L. Ed. 2d 759 (Supreme Court, 2011)

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Bluebook (online)
380 F. App'x 880, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-edward-lee-edens-jr-ca11-2010.