By Michael R. Moser
Editor
—
Some jurors wept; others were brought to tears as they viewed one-at-a-time 128 images of various states of sexual content involving children.
The children involved, according to prosecutors, ranged from pre-school to 17 and the jury didn't see all that were found on the computer owned by a local man. But at 128, Deputy District Attorney Gary McKenzie said it was enough and at least one juror audibly agreed.
"Every time these images are viewed these children are victimized," McKenzie told the jury in closing arguments. "Every time, time and time again."
In a pre-trial hearing it was agreed that the over 1,000 images, involving children from toddlers to 17 in various sexual acts and poses would be limited. The state offered to show 10 representative images to the jury but to meet the mandate of the law, over 100 images had to be shown to the jury.
It took the panel about 20 minutes to find Charles D. Sprunger, 42, owner of a lawn care business, guilty of the charge of aggravated sexual exploitation of a minor.
Criminal Court Judge David Patterson ordered him to immediately be taken into custody and set a sentencing hearing for Sept. 10 at 1 p.m. Sprunger is facing a minimum of eight years and maximum of 12 years in prison, to be served at 100 percent.
The pornography came to the attention of prosecutors in July of 2008 when Sprunger dropped his computer tower off at McKinley Tabor's office to have some problems diagnosed and fixed.
Secretary Tammy Arellano identified Sprunger as the man who delivered the E-machine to Tabor's office for repairs.
Tabor said after his testimony that he did not know Sprunger, and had never seen him before court Thursday, but that it was not unusual for his business to draw new clients by word-of-mouth because of the amount of work he does for Crossville businesses.
Tabor arranged to call Sprunger a couple of days later to discuss the issues Sprunger was concerned about and to obtain a password to get into the computer.
He noticed the computer, an E-machine, had a "burn CD icon" pop up on desktop, announcing material was ready to be transfered.
Thinking that might be one of the issues with the computer, Tabor clicked on the icon and when it opened, he found several images of children in various sexual poses or situations.
Tabor testified that he quickly closed the images and ended the conversation with Sprunger. He then contacted an acquaintance who works at the sheriff's office, Investigator Scott Davis who referred him to Investigator John Haynes and Chad Norris of the department's Special Investigations Unit.
This set the stage for Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Special Agent Melanie Gainer of the Technical Service Unit in Nashville to testify and show the videos.
During questioning, Gainer testified it was her belief that the images were not hacked onto Sprunger's computer by an outside source as was the defense's theory. She also testified that viruses would not have placed the images in a "burn CD" file.
Haynes testified that a search warrant on Sprunger's home was served and four computers seized, but only the E-machine had sexual images that contained minors.
Investigators found a video projector, large drop-down screen suspended from the ceiling and other electronic equipment. They also found up to 1,000 CDs but a random sampling failed to produce any more pornographic images, Haynes testified.
Haynes testified that officers searched for a couple of hours without finding anything else.
Under cross examination, defense attorney Jimmy Smith of Rockwood asked if Haynes found that out-of-character for a suspected possessor of child pornography to not have CDs and pornographic material in different locations in the home.
Haynes responded that he did not know, and when asked why all the CDs were not viewed, Haynes testified, "I felt we had enough evidence."
When the state rested its case, Smith made a motion to have the charge dismissed, arguing that the state had failed to prove there was sexual activity in more than 50 of the images as required.
Patterson denied the motion, stating, "I think that is something for the jury to decide, if the requirement for pornography was met."
The only defense witness was the defendant. Sprunger described himself as anti-social, calling himself a "recluse." He spent most of his daylight hours working in his lawncare business and at night read or watched movies, he said.
Sprunger said he had not viewed the pictures before court. He said he had never been convicted of a crime. His testimony concluded that he wanted to go to college to study cultural anthropology and possibly work in Africa in that field.
In closing, Assistant District Attorney Amanda Hunter quoted Haynes' testimony that when asked about the pornography found on the E-machine computer, Sprunger told the investigator, "You won't find anymore," indicating he was already aware of their existence.
Smith countered, "No doubt child pornography needs to be approached with a large hammer, or a sharp axe." But he questioned why investigators found no CDs containing the images at the residence.
He also questioned whether the images could have been placed on the computer by outside hackers or viruses. "Let your conscience be your guide," he said.
McKenzie had the last word and told the jurors, "There is no dispute it was his computer. No dispute the images were found in different locations on the computer." He added that it took a password to get into the computer, which only Sprunger had.
Once sentenced, Sprunger's attorney will have 30 days to file notice of an appeal but it is not known if an appeal will be filed.
