Judge rules pictures in child porn sex trial will be admitted

Former H-E-B executive facing child pornography charges

SAN ANTONIO – After several hours of legal wrangling, a judge ruled Thursday that prosecutors will be allowed to show the jury what had been described as “sexually explicit images of young boys.”

The images were obtained from John Morgan Campbell’s electronic devices at his H-E-B corporate office in Feb. 2014.

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He was fired and the files were turned over to authorities. A 53-count indictment was subsequently returned against Campbell alleging promotion of child pornography.

On Thursday, a digital forensics examiner with the state attorney general’s office testified on how the images he obtained from Campbell’s electronic devices compared to the counts in the indictment.

“Some of the file names contain graphic descriptions of what’s on the movies, or pictures, so I look at the file name and the image itself,” David Torsiello testified.

READ MORE: Former H-E-B executive facing child porn charges

Over objections from Campbell’s defense team, Judge Catherine Torres-Stahl ruled that the pictures would be admissible.

They will be published to the jury when testimony resumes on Friday. If convicted, Campbell could face 600 years behind bars.


About the Author:

Paul Venema is a courthouse reporter for KSAT with more than 25 years experience in the role.