Jacksboro man convicted in Roane County child pornography case

ROANE COUNTY, Tenn. (WATE) — A Jacksboro man who previously lived in Harriman was convicted by a jury in less than 30 minutes Tuesday in a child pornography trial, District Attorney Russell Johnson said.

Johnson shared the news of the sentencing on Facebook, explaining that the defendant was half an hour late, but that the entire process, from selecting the jury to reading the verdict, had taken place in just one day.

On August 6, Joshua Blankenship31, was convicted of five counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, the district attorney said. Johnson explained that the case began four and a half years ago.

In December 2019, prosecutors were alerted to Blankenship’s possession of child pornography after a Harriman police officer responded to a report of possible domestic violence by Blankenship’s ex-girlfriend. When questioned, Blankenship allegedly told the officer that he and his ex-girlfriend had gotten into an argument because “he forgot to delete nude photos of an ‘adult girl,'” Johnson said.

Ultimately, an investigator with the Knox County Sheriff’s Office Cyber ​​Crimes Unit discovered child sexual abuse material on three of the five devices, which Blankenship wanted to release to law enforcement for forensic testing, according to the DA’s office.

At trial, the officer who spoke to Blankenship in December 2019 and the investigator who examined Blankenship’s devices testified, and Blankenship chose to testify in his own defense. Johnson said Blankenship claimed he was seeking justice by reporting the websites where the material was located and downloading the images when the sites he reported were not taken down.

“During cross-examination, it was revealed that he had downloaded numerous images of child abuse material and denied that he perpetuated the victimization of children through his conduct. Furthermore, he could not describe a single instance in which he had reported the images to authorities during the two years that he had been downloading child pornography,” the prosecutor wrote.

Johnson said the most difficult part of the trial was carefully and respectfully “publishing” five of the more than 200 images of child pornography to each of the 12 jurors.

According to Johnson, if the judge chooses to sentence the sentences consecutively, Blankenship could face up to 20 years in prison. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 22, 2024.