Local man charged after investigators find over 6,000 images of child porn
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IDAHO FALLS — A local man was arrested for allegedly possessing child pornography after authorities found more than 6,000 images of explicit content.
Ricky Lamar Craig was charged with 15 felony counts of possessing child pornography. If Craig is found guilty, he faces a potential punishment of up to 150 years in prison.
According to the criminal complaint, two enhancements were filed. The first is for a persistent violator due to his previous felonies, which adds five years to the potential sentence. The second enhancement is a mandatory minimum enhancement for Craig’s previous conviction of felony possession of child porn, which mandates each count a minimum of 15 years and to run consecutively.
According to court documents, on April 23, a detective with the Bonneville County Sheriff’s Office working with Idaho’s Internet Crimes Against Children task force began to investigate a cybertip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
The documents state that the NCMEC gets tips from online companies that detail users who either have explicit content involving children or inappropriately talk with children.
The cybertip from Microsoft details how the Bing Visual Image Search was used to find similar images provided by a user. A search warrant was issued to view the image.
The images showed girls, aged 7 to 11, exposing themselves to a camera in various positions.
An internet protocol address was attached, and a subpoena was issued to the internet service provider. On March 20, a mailing address, phone number and email were also provided by the service provider.
The document states the phone number and email belonged to Craig.
A search of Craig’s criminal background showed his prior charges in 1997 and 1998 for possessing child pornography, sexual abuse of a child, lewd and lascivious conduct, and a failure to register as a sex offender in 2015.
The document states Craig is no longer listed on Idaho’s Sex Offender Registry.
On June 18, a search warrant was conducted on Craig’s home, vehicle and person.
Craig was handcuffed and taken to the BCSO’s Ammon Field Office, where he was interviewed. After being read his Miranda Rights, Craig spoke with the detective about the cybertips.
The detective asked about an HP laptop found at his residence, and Craig responded that it was his son’s. The document states Craig’s son has been in prison.
The detective then asked about Bing’s Image Search, and Craig said he had used it and was informed about why his account was flagged.
The detective told Craig that there were nude images of preteens that were uploaded, and Craig denied it was him. He told the detective that he had only uploaded photos of his grandson.
The document states the detective asked Craig if he ever looked porn websites and clicked on links that redirected him to different websites, and Craig said yes. Craig told the detective he had seen images of naked young kids but did not know their ages.
Craig said he thinks it’s possible that he downloaded something to his computer.
Investigators told Craig the cybertips were reported due to the images being uploaded, and they asked him how many images of child porn were on his computer.
He responded that he didn’t know how this could have happened. The documents state Craig continued to deny ever uploading the images.
The detective asked Craig again if they were going to find images of naked children, and the man responded, “I sure hope not,” and denied uploading any images.
The document states that more time is needed to go through his devices. Craig was allowed to leave and go home.
On July 14, a tablet was searched and 570 images of child porn were found. The images were pictures of a Dell laptop screen.
A forensic examination of the Dell laptop resulted in 7,386 images of explicit content being found, with some involving bestiality, according to the court documents.
Craig’s son provided the PIN for the Dell laptop, and on July 21, more images were found. Over 20,000 images and videos were found, with 4,800 images being of child porn. Another 976 images were also found on the HP laptop a few days later.
The images and videos depict girls as young as 2 exposing themselves or being sexually abused.
Craig is scheduled to appear before Magistrate Judge Wiley Dennert for a preliminary hearing at 1 p.m. on Aug. 19.
Though Craig has been charged with these crimes, it does not necessarily mean he committed them. Everyone is presumed innocent until they are proven guilty.