State v. Kenneth G.

Syllabus

Convicted, after a jury trial, of various crimes, including possession of child pornography in the first degree, the defendant appealed to this court. During the trial, the state presented, inter alia, evidence of sixty-six thumbnail images of child pornography that had been found on the defendant's iPad. On appeal, the defendant claimed that there was insufficient evidence to support his conviction of possession of child pornography. Held: The defendant's claim that he could not knowingly possess thumbnail images that were automatically created and stored in a directory inaccessible to him was unavailing, as the state consistently advanced the theory at trial that the possession of child pornography charge was based on the defendant's constructive possession of the original images, of which the thumbnail images served as evidence, and not the thumbnail images themselves. The evidence reasonably supported the jury's determination that the state proved beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant knowingly possessed the original images of child pornography, as, viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to sustaining the verdict, there was sufficient evidence to establish that the defendant transferred, viewed, and later deleted the original images of child pornography, and the jury could have inferred that the images were not downloaded inadvertently or by mistake and that the defendant was aware of their existence on the basis of evidence that the defendant was familiar with nude and sexually suggestive photos of children and how to search for and store such material on his electronic devices. Argued October 8, 2025—officially released January 6, 2026