Manhattan man convicted of 17 counts in child sex crime trial | Features

Tristian Gooden-Heit, 29, hung his head as Judge Grant Bannister announced the jury’s verdict Friday afternoon on 15 counts of sexual exploitation of a child, one count of computer crime and one count of interfering with law enforcement by tampering with evidence. Gooden-Heit had stolen the photos that a 14-year-old girl had sent to her boyfriend from his friend’s phone in 2022. The boy lived in a group home where Gooden-Heit was a staff member.

Officer Logan Swartz was the prosecution’s key witness and reiterated in his testimony Friday that while no nude photos of the girl were found on Gooden-Heit’s phone or on Google Photos, they were found in his Google Cloud data after a request to search warrant returned by Google.

In closing, Deputy Riley County Attorney Bethany Fields told the jury that Gooden-Heit had “preyed on the mistakes of a young girl and a boy who had shared nude photos with each other” rather than “advising them not to.” doing”.

Fields also noted several times during Gooden-Heit’s encounter with police that he was afraid to give his phone to police and also answered questions with self-incriminating answers, even police initially did not assume he was in possession of the photos.

Sentencing in the case is set for November 18 at 9 a.m. Despite a request from the state, Gooden-Heit’s bond was not revoked and he will have to register with the Kansas Offender Registry.

The trial began Tuesday in Riley County District Court and was expected to end Thursday, but it lasted an extra day because the defense presented evidence and testimony Friday.

Prosecutors alleged Thursday that Gooden-Heit uploaded images at 5:10 p.m. on the afternoon of July 26, 2022, and then deleted them at 8 p.m. that same evening.

Defense attorney Andy Vinduska said the times were misleading, pointing out several times images were uploaded on different dates and times by the victim’s friend.

Fields brought in former McPherson County Detective Craig Hansen to testify about a 2010 incident in which then-15-year-old Gooden-Heit had nude photos of a minor on a Nintendo DS.

The case was tried in McPherson County in 2011.

Vinduska questioned the testimony, claiming Gooden-Heit was a minor at the time of the incident.

On Thursday, the Public Prosecution Service closed the case.