The Orange County Criminal Lawyer Blog
When a man brought his broken laptop to Best Buy for service last August, the technicians working with the files on the machine believed he was storing pictures depicting sexual content containing very young children and reported him to the authorities.
Des Moines resident Robert Leo Watson found that his laptop was no longer functioning after he had a mishap and spilled gravy on the keyboard of the electronic device.
On August 11, 2018, Watson reportedly went to the local Best Buy and bought a new computer to replace the one he had rendered defective. While he was there 54-year-old Watson reportedly decided he would pay the Geek Squad a fee to have the information stored on the old machine moved to the new one.
While they were in the process of relocating the data, the workers thought they spotted pornographic pictures containing children amongst the images being moved off the broken laptop.
The authorities were notified about the situation, and the Des Moines police seized both of the computers.
When they spoke with Watson about the pictures, the man reportedly told the detectives they would locate images of children that appeared to be 4 and 5-years-old. Watson also allegedly said he thought it had appeared as if the children in the photos were about to perform sexual acts.
Watson was arrested a little over 8-months after the incident was reported, and he was charged with 10 counts of possession of child pornography.
When he went to court at the end of July, Watson entered a plea of guilty to the charges, and if he is given the maximum sentence he could face 20 years of incarceration in addition to over $6,000 in fines.
Watson is expected to be sentenced on September 26.
If you or someone you love is suspected of a sex crime, contact Orange County criminal defense lawyer Staycie R. Sena at (949) 477-8088 for a consultation now.