Man gets 9 years in prison for child porn

LITTLE ROCK — A Little Rock man charged with possession of child pornography was sentenced to nine years in prison Thursday by a federal judge.

Justin Anthony Holzknecht, 32, pleaded guilty to the charge in October. A criminal complaint filed by the FBI in October 2021 accused Holzknecht of exchanging texts with an undercover FBI agent in New York that suggested he may have sexually assaulted an 8-yearold family member during a visit to Arkansas while he was living in New York in October of 2021. According to the complaint, Holzknecht sent texts suggesting he had slept in the same bed with the boy while visiting Arkansas and had become aroused but said, “We didn’t do anything. He just cuddled with me.”

The complaint said Holzknecht then texted, “Maybe if he takes a NyQuil nap, then I could push my luck,” and went on to talk about how to groom young children into doing sexual actions.

During an interview with FBI agents in Little Rock, the complaint said, Holzknecht admitted to having child pornography on his cellphone, a 32-second video depicting a grown man sexually abusing a young boy who appeared to be about 10 years old.

Holzknecht’s attorney, Rebecca Ferguson of North Little Rock, argued for a downward variance in the sentencing guideline range of 46 to 57 months in prison. She asked U.S. District Judge Lee Rudofsky to sentence Holzknecht to one year in prison, citing his lack of criminal history and his own sexual abuse at the age of 6 by a babysitter.

“This isn’t just a run-of-the-mill possession case,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Kristin Bryant said, citing the online chat that so alarmed the FBI agent in New York that he contacted the Little Rock office and asked them to find the child and conduct a welfare check.

“He talks about how he’s his favorite,” Bryant said. “He talks about how he’s going to essentially groom him.”

Ferguson argued that an investigation into the child’s welfare had resulted in no disclosures, prompting Rudofsky to ask why Ferguson’s defense didn’t include evidence that the child was never harmed.

“If there have been no disclosures by these children,” she said, “clearly there is no proof it happened.”

“That’s an incredibly dangerous assumption to make,” Rudofsky said. “I would rethink that a little bit. There are lots of people, both minors and women, who get abused all the time and do not make disclosures.”

Ferguson agreed in part, saying that Holzknecht’s experience bore that out.

“But if there was proof something like that had happened, he would have been charged with it,” she said. “He has no criminal history and no pending charges.”

“I get your point, but I think if he really wanted to do this but he didn’t follow through on it, that’s still a big problem for you all.”

Bryant said her initial inclination had been to ask for a five-year sentence but internal discussions at the U. S. attorney’s office had convinced her that was not sufficient.

“If you think an upward variance is justified here,” Rudofsky asked, “what is the number then? Whatever number you give me I’m going to ask you why not the statutory maximum.”

“That’s the number I was going to give you,” Bryant said.

After a 10-minute recess, Rudofsky partially granted the upward variance but stopped a year short of the maximum, settling on nine years to be followed by 15 years on supervised release.

Ferguson objected to the sentence, an indication that she intends to appeal the sentence because it deviates from the guideline range.