A 58-year-old Little Rock man arrested with 30 pieces of child pornography was sentenced to 60 years in prison Tuesday.
Larry Davis "Dave" McLeod pleaded guilty to six counts of possessing matter depicting sexually explicit conduct in exchange for the 60-year sentence imposed by Pulaski County Circuit Judge Karen Whatley. Each count is a Class C felony that carries a 10-year maximum.
Under the conditions of his plea agreement, negotiated by deputy prosecutor Hannah Johnston and defense attorney Heather Bryn Hersh of Springdale, the 24 counts were dropped.
McLeod had challenged the legality of the evidence Little Rock police obtained to get a search warrant to raid his home in January 2020, seizing three computers, four phones, five iPads and a flash drive.
McLeod was arrested then when a preliminary review of a laptop turned up images investigators recognized as verified child pornography.
At an August hearing, Whatley found no wrongdoing by police in a ruling that cleared the way for prosecutors to show jurors the photographs, some of which involved infants.
McLeod, who had never been in serious trouble with the law before, came to the attention of police in November 2019 during the investigation into a tip about possible illegal materials possession by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children based on information the agency had received from Microsoft Skype, the internet broadcasting application.