United States v. Sean David Pickett

602 F. App'x 774
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
DecidedMarch 16, 2015
Docket14-11004
StatusUnpublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 602 F. App'x 774 (United States v. Sean David Pickett) 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. Sean David Pickett, 602 F. App'x 774 (11th Cir. 2015).

Opinion

PER CURIAM:

After a jury trial, Defendant Sean David Pickett was convicted of three counts of receiving child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2252(a)(2) and (a)(4)(B). For his crimes, Pickett was sentenced to *776 120 months’ imprisonment. He now appeals arguing that (1) the evidence adduced at trial failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he knowingly received or possessed child pornography; (2) the district court abused its discretion in allowing a government witness to disclose to the jury an incriminating double hearsay statement allegedly made by his wife; (3) the district court committed plain error by failing to strike the testimony of a government witness that he found a small remnant of what could have been child pornography on an external hard drive; and (4) the district court abused its discretion by allowing into evidence one 59-second video and ten screenshots from the more than seventy child-pornography videos that were found on Pickett’s computer. After reviewing the record and reading the parties’ briefs, we affirm Pickett’s convictions. 1

I.

A.

At the close of the government’s case, Pickett moved for a judgment of acquittal under Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 29, arguing that the government had failed to marshal sufficient evidence to establish scienter — that he knowingly received or possessed child pornography. The district court denied his motion.

We review de novo the district court’s denial of a motion for judgment of acquittal challenging the sufficiency of the evidence presented at trial. United States v. Smith, 459 F.3d 1276, 1286 (11th Cir.2006). To determine whether the government adduced sufficient evidence, we review “the evidence in the light most favorable to the government and draw all reasonable factual inferences in favor of the jury’s verdict.” United States v. Dulcio, 441 F.3d 1269, 1276 (11th Cir.2006). And so long as “a reasonable fact-finder could have determined that the evidence provided the defendant’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt,” we must affirm. Smith, 459 F.3d at 1286.

We have held that a person “knowingly receives” child pornography in violation of § 2252(a)(2) by intentionally viewing, acquiring, or accepting child pornography on a computer from an external source. United States v. Pruitt, 638 F.3d 763, 766 (11th Cir.2011). Evidence that a person searched the Internet for child pornography and has images of child pornography on a computer can constitute circumstantial evidence that he knowingly received child pornography. Id.

We have also held that a person “knowingly possesses” child pornography in violation of § 2252(a)(4)(B) if he knows that the images in his possession show minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct within the meaning of 18 U.S.C. § 2256(2). United States v. Alfaro-Moncada, 607 F.3d 720, 733 (11th Cir.2010). At the same time, our precedent has long made clear that “the term ‘knowingly’ means that the act was performed voluntarily and intentionally, and not because of a mistake or accident.” United States v. Woodruff, 296 F.3d 1041, 1047 (11th Cir.2002).

Based on our review of the record, we conclude that the evidence introduced by the government, though circumstantial, was sufficient to permit a reasonable juror to find beyond a reasonable doubt that Pickett knowingly received and possessed child pornography.

First, the hard drive of the computer seized at Pickett’s house contained evi *777 dence from which a reasonable juror could have concluded that Pickett was the computer’s primary user. This evidence included the computer’s name “Nordsguy PC” and the user name on the computer’s login screen “Nordsguy”; an email account named Nordsguy@hotmail.com, which contained emails addressed to Pickett, emails from Pickett, and Pickett’s résumé; information about Pickett’s employer; as well as the multiplayer Internet video fantasy game Everquest II with which a user named “Nordsguy” and an email address of Nordsguy@hotmail.com had an account.

Second, there was evidence from which a reasonable juror could have concluded that Pickett knowingly downloaded, moved, and viewed child-pornography videos on the computer. For starters, on the dates when the child-pornography videos were downloaded as well as when those files were moved to a hidden folder on the computer’s hard drive, the “Nordsguy” account logged into Everquest II’s online servers from that computer. Next, in January 2013, Pickett began working 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Monday through Friday. Once he did, the downloading of child pornography occurred either after his workday ended during the week or on the weekend — even though before he began this job, child pornography was frequently downloaded during the day, including during the midafternoon. Finally, the “open recent” information for a video player on the computer showed that two child-pornography videos had been played, including one that had been moved to the hidden folder on the computer’s hard drive.

Accordingly, we hold that the district court’s denial of Pickett’s motion for judgment of acquittal was not error and is due to be affirmed.

B.

Pickett contends that the district court erred by allowing the government’s computer-forensic expert to disclose on redirect examination an incriminating double hearsay statement attributed to his wife: namely, that she told an agent executing the search warrant at his house that “they don’t have any friends over that use that computer,” meaning the one seized pursuant to the search warrant containing more than 70 child-pornography videos and evidence that more than 700 such videos had been downloaded — all with graphically descriptive names, such as “Frifam 1YO” and “Bibcam Blue Orchid, 95, 10YO and 12 suck each other, very cute kids boys.”

Here, however, we need not decide whether the district court erred by admitting this testimony or whether the court’s two instructions to the jury that they could not consider this hearsay evidence to prove that Pickett, but not his friends, used the seized computer were sufficiently curative. This is because even if we assume that the district court abused its discretion by admitting this hearsay testimony, any such error was harmless.

An erroneous evidentiary ruling warrants reversal only if the resulting error was not harmless. United States v. Augustin, 661 F.3d 1105, 1123 (11th Cir.2011).

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602 F. App'x 774, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-sean-david-pickett-ca11-2015.