The former owner of a Little Rock motorcycle dealership was arrested Wednesday on child-pornography charges stemming from his participation in an online chat room that was involved in the sharing of live images of children being raped, the U.S. attorney's office announced.
William Thomas Murry III, 60, of Sherwood was arrested by federal agents after his July 6 indictment by a federal grand jury on one count of possession of child pornography and four counts of receipt of child pornography.
Murry owned the Kawasaki Sports Center at 5922 S. University Ave. when Homeland Security agents tracked a chat room participant's Internet Protocol address to the dealership, the announcement said.
The agents zeroed in on the IP address after learning in late 2015 and early 2016 about someone's participation in an online chat room that was involved in the sharing of the live images and recorded child pornographic videos and pictures through webcam streaming, the news release said.
While the person's face wasn't visible, his bare torso and genitals were, as was the background of what appeared to be an office with several distinguishing features, the release said.
After tracking the online activity to the business selling motorcycles and personal watercraft devices, a federal search warrant was executed Nov. 22 by Homeland Security agents based in Little Rock, with assistance from the Little Rock Police Department and the special investigation division of the Arkansas attorney general's office.
Agents determined Murry's office was where the the child pornography had been viewed and noted that Murry physically resembled the person partially pictured in the images, acting U.S. Attorney Pat Harris said in the news release. The release noted that Murry admitted using the online network but said he denied looking at child pornography.
A forensic exam was conducted on Murry's work computer, which contained 65 still images and two video files containing child pornography, while an exam of Murry's home laptop revealed 33 still images and four video files of child pornography, the news release said. It noted that both computers contained evidence of the online network.
Agents interviewed all other employees at the Kawasaki dealership and eliminated them as the person in the online chat room, Harris said.
"Too often people like Murry think they can hide behind a computer and receive gratification from watching children being sexually exploited," Harris said. "This indictment sends the message that this depravity will not be tolerated."
Raymond Parmer Jr., special agent in charge of the local Homeland Security office, added that the agency "will continue working with our partner law enforcement agencies to ensure we find and arrest anyone involved in these heinous transnational crimes."
Murry had his first appearance Wednesday in federal court, where U.S. Magistrate Judge Jerome Kearney allowed him to be released until trial on conditions including electronic monitoring, no unsupervised contact with minors and monitored Internet access.
Metro on 07/13/2017