MARSHALL, District Judge.
Terry Boll lived in a house of many people and many computers—seven residents had easy access to ten computers. The Department of Homeland Security is responsible for investigating child pornography in the District of South Dakota. After state investigators detected illegal downloads, the Department got a warrant and raided the house. Seven officers in tactical gear entered while several Sioux Falls police officers secured the perimeter.
Later scrutiny of the seized computers revealed child pornography on three of them. Two of these belonged to Boll. Several illegal videos were on Boll's desktop; one video was also on his laptop. At trial, Boll's lawyer pointed to Boll's housemates as the wrongdoers. They all had access, Boll pressed, and the file-sharing software could continue downloading between different users. The jury disagreed, convicting Boll of possessing one of the videos, Exhibit Five, on his desktop computer. 18 U.S.C. § 2252A(a)(5)(B) (2006). The jury did not find that he possessed either the same video on his laptop or the other videos on his desktop.
Boll appeals the District Court's
The record established a particular link between Boll and Exhibit 5. Unlike the other videos, Exhibit Five was downloaded completely and moved to a folder called "new folder"—which was visible whenever the desktop computer was turned on. Two residents testified that the desktop belonged to Boll. It was registered to "Terry" and sat in Boll's bedroom. Finally, the jury heard about a later exchange between Boll and one of the investigating officers.
Trial Tr. at 24-25. These admissions, which the jury was entitled to believe, confirmed Boll's ownership of the computers and the pornography. Boll does not contest that Exhibit 5 involved minors and
Notwithstanding the fact that many people had access to Boll's desktop computer, and the fact that the jury did not find he possessed the other videos, the record supports "an inference of [Boll's] guilt [as to Exhibit 5], reasonably drawn from the facts." United States v. Hernandez, 301 F.3d 886, 890 (8th Cir.2002). The question is whether substantial evidence supports Boll's conviction for possessing Exhibit 5. It does.
Affirmed.