Man pleads not guilty to child porn
A man accused of producing child pornography with 5- and 13-year-old girls pleaded not guilty Wednesday at a hearing before a federal judge in Texarkana.
Aaron Lloyd Mitchell, 21, appeared Wednesday morning before U.S. Magistrate Judge Barry Bryant for arraignment with Assistant Federal Public Defender Matt Hill in Texarkana’s downtown federal building. Hill entered pleas of not guilty on Mitchell’s behalf to each of three counts listed in an indictment charging him with production of child pornography.
Mitchell allegedly took a picture of himself in a state of arousal with the sleeping 13-year-old in the image, according to the indictment handed down last week in the Texarkana Division of the Western
District of Arkansas. The first two counts of the indictment allege Mitchell created images involving the 5-year-old while she was clad in “Hello Kitty” and “Doughnut” panties and while he sexually abused the girl.
All of the images were allegedly created Sept. 1 through Nov. 3 on property in Foreman, Ark., where Mitchell was living with the mother of the younger girl. The 13-year-old is the daughter of a friend of the 5-year-
old’s mother, according to a criminal complaint filed at the time of Mitchell’s arrest last month.
Mitchell has been in jail since his arrest Nov. 21 following an investigation by the FBI and in conjunction with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
The images, which ultimately led to Mitchell’s arrest, were first brought to the attention of NCMEC through an anonymous posting to its online tip line Nov. 3. The tip identified six photos associated with a user name on the social media and blogging site Tumblr, which appeared to be images depicting the sexual abuse of children. The tip included a warning that the individual posting the images “may be currently molesting 5-yearold and 13-year-old and posting pics.”
NCMEC received a second tip Nov. 5 from a Tumblr representative which included images identical to those received in the Nov. 3 tip. NCMEC was able to conduct an analysis of some of the images, which identified the location where they were created on an iPhone 7 Plus, and provided a report Nov. 19 detailing the findings to the FBI. The following day, NCMEC and the FBI Violent Crimes Against Children Intelligence Unit contacted the FBI’s Texarkana office with the information.
Agents in Little Rock used the location information extracted from the photos to identify a residence in Foreman at which the images were likely created. Texarkana FBI agents went to the property Nov. 21 and learned from their investigation that Mitchell was living on the property. Mitchell was contacted by a nearby resident cooperating with the FBI and asked to come outside. When Mitchell walked out of the residence, he was allegedly “manipulating a cell phone in his hands.”
Mitchell allegedly admitted to taking the photos inside the residence of the 5- and-13-year-old girls depicted in the photographs at the center of the investigation.
“Mitchell further admitted to posting the photos of the females on Tumblr,” a federal complaint states. “Mitchell stated he had taken the photos through the SnapChat application, and then saved them to the camera roll on Mitchell’s phone, but he believed he had deleted most of them.”
Mitchell allegedly admitted to deleting the Tumblr app from his phone while FBI agents were standing outside the Foreman residence. Mitchell’s alleged Tumblr username contains a phrase alluding to the sexual abuse of children not suitable for publication. Mitchell allegedly told agents that the girls were sleeping when he photographed them.
If convicted, Mitchell faces 15 to 30 years in federal prison. The case is scheduled for trial Jan. 30 before U.S. District Judge Susan Hickey. Assistant U.S. Attorney Benjamin Wulff is handling the case for the government.