BENTONVILLE -- John Calvin Oakley admitted to possessing child pornography, and his glances at the images during sentencing Friday caught Circuit Judge Brad Karren's attention.
Karren viewed 20 images as Dennis Schumacher with the Benton County Sheriff's Office described them. Oakley was sitting at a table in the courtroom. He leaned forward and across the table to watch some of the images as they were shown on a screen.
Karren said he didn't see any remorse in Oakley, and believed Oakley was getting pleasure out of seeing the images.
Oakley, 59, of Bella Vista previously pleaded guilty to 20 counts of distributing, possessing or viewing matter depicting sexually explicit conduct involving a child, a felony. His plea was without the benefit of a plea agreement, so his punishment was up to Karren.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children provided a tip to Arkansas State Police, who referred the case to the cyber crime division of the Sheriff's Office. The tip concerned someone posting a child pornography image on a Facebook page, according to a probable cause affidavit. The image was of a nude girl who was about 10 years old, according to court documents.
Schumacher, a detective with the Sheriff's Office, said more than 700 images and videos of child pornography were found on Oakley's computer.
"Have you ever in your life sexually assaulted a child?" Larry Froelich, Oakley's attorney, asked him. Oakley said, "No."
Oakley claimed some of the images reminded him of girls from his teen years.
"For lack of better words -- the ones that got away," Oakley said about some of the hundreds of child pornographic images found on his computer.
Stuart Cearley, chief deputy prosecutor, told the court Oakley is a registered sex offender who was convicted of swapping child pornography in California in the 1990s.
"You've had a long history of dealing with child pornography?" Cearley asked him.
"I did it once and I did it again," Oakley said.
Cearley asked Oakley about his statement about some of the images reminding him of girls from the past.
"I was a teenage boy at one time," Oakley said. "We have hormones. At 16 or 17 there were a lot of cute girls out there."
Oakley's family members testified on his behalf. They described him as a loving husband, brother and father. Oakley wiped tears from his eyes as they testified. He said he was sorry for his actions and for hurting his wife and children.
Oakley traded porn with a man who turned out to be a detective when he was in his early 40s, Cearley said. Oakley received probation.
"He's not a 21-year-old that stumbles into this rat hole," Cearley said. "He was caught once and went back to this cesspool."
Froelich told Karren that Oakley didn't distribute or share the images with anyone. Froelich also said Oakley never purchased child pornography.
Child pornography isn't a victimless crime, Karren said. He noted none of the images involved children under 10 years old, but he also said Oakley had been convicted of a similar offense.
"These images show the depraved humanity of the person viewing them," Karren said.
Oakley was sentenced to 30 years in prison. He must serve five years before he will be eligible for parole.
Oakley said he has congestive heart failure, heart disease, sleep apnea, high blood pressure and influenza.
"I don't think I have a long time to live," he said.
Oakley believes he has five to six years to live and he would like to get out of prison before he dies.
NW News on 04/11/2015