A Little Rock man faces at least five years in prison -- and a maximum of 20 years -- after pleading guilty in federal court to one count of distribution of child pornography.
Justin Simmons, 36, entered the plea Wednesday afternoon before Chief U.S. District Judge D. Price Marshall Jr. He was charged in a federal indictment handed up Feb. 4, 2020, by a grand jury in Little Rock on two counts of distribution of child pornography and one count each of possession and receipt of child pornography.
In exchange for Simmons' guilty plea , Assistant U.S. Attorney Allison Bragg moved to dismiss the remaining counts, which Marshall granted.
Simmons was represented by Matthew McKay of Little Rock.
According to a plea agreement between the government and Simmons, an FBI agent investigating the use of P2P file sharing programs for the transmission of child pornography connected to the Bit Torrent network and downloaded an image depicting a sex act between an adult male and a prepubescent female that was determined to have been accessed from a computer belonging to Simmons.
On Aug. 1, 2019, Arkansas State Police and officers from the Little Rock Police Department discovered numerous images and videos of child pornography located on digital devices that were taken from Simmons' home during a search.
According to the plea agreement, Simmons admitted to using Bit Torrent to download software, did not share any files and was not set up to allow others to download files from him. He later said he had accidentally downloaded child pornography that was mixed in with a software download and had meant to delete it but never did.
A forensic review of Simmons' computer and hard drives turned up more than 1,000 images, the plea agreement said.
After reading through the summary of facts contained in the plea agreement, which was not read in open court, Simmons admitted to the conduct and entered a plea of guilty to the charge of distribution of child pornography.
"Is that because you are, in fact, guilty?" Marshall asked.
"Yes, sir, I believe so," Simmons responded, at which point Marshall questioned him further.
"For the crime to have been committed there has to have been a knowing distribution by you," Marshall said. "When we began the hearing and I went through the charge, there was kind of a pause on that, so let me ask you some pointed questions."
Marshall then defined child pornography and asked Simmons if he had indeed possessed such images and knew they were child pornography.
"Well, I guess so," Simmons said.
"You either did or you didn't," Marshall said.
"I did," Simmons replied.
Under further questioning, Simmons admitted to having shared the images using Bit Torrent.
"Tell me about Torrent," Marshall said as he leaned forward slightly at the bench. "What is that?"
"A torrent is basically a broken file that's distributed between nodes -- the towers between your houses," Simmons said, "and the Torrent program brings in files, such as illegal software and stuff like that, brings it into your computer and puts it back together so you'll have a final file."
"Huh?" Marshall said with a bemused expression. "So Torrent reaches out and grabs the broken files, brings it to you and repairs it, fair?"
"Pretty much, yes sir," Simmons said.
"OK," Marshall said. "Is this what you want to do, Mr. Simmons, plead guilty to distributing the child pornography ... get the other counts dismissed and move on?"
"Yes, sir," Simmons answered. "I'd like to get this behind me and move forward in my life."
After accepting his guilty plea and dismissing the remaining counts, Marshall ordered Simmons taken into custody by the U.S. Marshals Service pending sentencing after determining from Bragg that the government was bound by statute to ask for incarceration and no other exceptional circumstances applied.
"The law defines distributing child pornography as a crime of violence, which requires detention unless some exception applies," Marshall said.
Bragg, referring to the mandatory minimum five-year sentence called for in the statutes for the offense, said "I can't say I'm going to make that recommendation."
McKay said he could find no exemption to immediate remanding into custody to fit his client.
After Marshall ordered Simmons taken into custody to await sentencing -- which will likely take place within the next three to six months -- the defendant tearfully hugged his family before he was taken by marshals for processing.
"You will get through this. You will," Marshall told Simmons from the bench before exiting the courtroom.