A jury found a 69传媒 man guilty of 17 counts of child sex crimes Friday in Riley 69传媒 District Court.
Tristian Gooden-Heit, 29, hung his head as Judge Grant Bannister announced the jury69传媒檚 verdict on Friday afternoon on 15 counts of sexual exploitation of a child, one count of a computer crime and one count of interference with law enforcement by tampering with evidence. Gooden-Heit in 2022 had stolen the photos a 14-year-old girl had sent to her boyfriend from the boyfriend69传媒檚 phone. The boy was a resident at a group home where the Gooden-Heit was a staff member.
Officer Logan Swartz was the prosecution69传媒檚 key witness and reiterated Friday in testimony that while no nude photos of the girl were found on Gooden-Heit69传媒檚 phone or Google Photos, they were found on his Google Cloud data following a search warrant request returned from Google.
In closing arguments, Riley 69传媒 deputy attorney Bethany Fields told the jury that Gooden-Heit had 69传媒減reyed on the mistakes of a young girl and boy who had shared nude photos between each other69传媒 instead of 69传媒渕entoring them not to do it.69传媒
Fields also noted several times in Gooden-Heit69传媒檚 encounter with police when he was apprehensive to give his phone to police and also answering questions with self-incriminating answers even police did not initially assume he was in possession of the photos.
Sentencing in the case has been set for Nov. 18 at 9 a.m. Despite a request from the state, Gooden-Heit69传媒檚 bond was not revoked and he will be required to register with the Kansas Offender Registry.
The trial began Tuesday in Riley 69传媒 District Court and was expected to end Thursday, but it went an additional day as the defense was presenting evidence and testimony on Friday.
Prosecutors on Thursday contended that Gooden-Heit had uploaded images at 5:10 p.m. on the afternoon of Jul. 26, 2022, and then deleted them at 8 p.m. the same evening.
Defense attorney Andy Vinduska said the times were misleading and pointed to several occurrences of images being uploaded at different dates and times by the victim69传媒檚 boyfriend.
Fields brought in former McPherson 69传媒 detective Craig Hansen to testify about an incident in 2010 when a then-15-year-old Gooden-Heit had nude photos of a minor on a Nintendo DS.
The case was adjudicated in McPherson 69传媒 in 2011.
Vinduska questioned the testimony, contending that Gooden-Heit was a minor at the time of the incident.
The prosecution rested its case on Thursday.
