Background

• McClain was convicted at a general court-martial of possessing and distributing child pornography under Article 134, UCMJ; the convening authority approved most of the sentence but modified confinement; the Army Court of Criminal Appeals (CCA) affirmed possession and sentence while dismissing the distribution specification.
• NCIS identified an IP address in Hawaii associated with McClain that allegedly contained child-pornography video files in a Limewire share folder; McClain's computer did not contain the four charged videos, but a search showed similar files in a shared folder on his machine.
• McClain admitted in a pretrial statement to knowingly downloading child pornography while stationed in Hawaii and later stated he could not recall the exact file names but had downloaded those videos.
• McClain claimed there was no proof the downloaded videos were the four charged files and argued he did not have dominion or control over the files; the government offered corroboration tying the shared-folder files to the charged videos.
• The military judge admitted the pretrial statement and relied on corroborating evidence (including SH A1 values and file characteristics) to support the possession conviction, and this Court reviews legal-sufficiency de novo.
• The Court holds the evidence is legally sufficient to convict of possession of child pornography beyond a reasonable doubt.

Issues

Key Cases Cited

• United States v. Winckelmann, 70 M.J. 403 (C.A.A.F. 2011) (legal-sufficiency review standard; rational-trier-of-fact formulation)
• United States v. Bright, 66 M.J. 359 (C.A.A.F. 2008) (draw every reasonable inference in favor of the prosecution)
• Harcrow v. United States, 66 M.J. 154 (C.A.A.F. 2008) (low threshold for corroboration of accomplice or self-serving statements)
• Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307 (1979) (standard for legally sufficient evidence)