ASP arrests local man on 40 counts of child pornography

A Hot Springs man was arrested Wednesday on 40 felony counts related to child pornography after an Arkansas State Police investigation culminated in a search warrant late last month.

Zachary Scott Deaton, 34, who lists an address on Walnut Valley Road, was arrested about 11:45 a.m. at the ASP Troop K headquarters, 200 Karen St., on 40 counts of distributing, possessing or viewing sexually explicit material Conduct constituted a child taken into custody, each punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

Deaton, who reported no prior offenses, remained in custody Friday on a $150,000 bond and is scheduled to appear in Garland County Circuit Court on Oct. 18, where the charges were filed directly.

According to the probable cause affidavit obtained Friday, August 21, ASP Special Agent Christopher Harper of the ASP Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force was assigned five cyber tips that were provided by Microsoft Corp. were reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. which provided an Internet Protocol address.

Microsoft was found to have created the reports as a result of uploading 11 images reportedly containing child sexual abuse material (CSAM) using a Bing image search. The images were uploaded on May 26th, June 14th, June 17th, July 19th and August 13th.

A subpoena was issued to WEHCO/Cablelynx for this IP address, which was found to be related to a physical address in the 1900 block of Walnut Valley Road in Garland County.

According to Microsoft, the eleven photo files apparently contained female prepubescent children who were behaving in sexually explicit ways. Harper reviewed three of the files and found that one contained an image of what appeared to be one-year-old girls, while the other two contained images of what appeared to be four- to five-year-old girls.

Harper wrote an affidavit and search warrant for the Walnut Valley address, which were signed by District Court Judge Kara Petro on Aug. 22. On the morning of September 26, the task force executed the search warrant at the address and contact was made with the 56-year-old homeowner, who stated she lived there with her fiancé, Deaton, and her teenage granddaughter.

During a search of the apartment, a black cell phone was found in the living room, which Deaton allegedly admitted was his. At the crime scene, an initial “triage” of the phone was carried out manually, which allegedly revealed web links related to the search for “porn for young teenagers”.

After being read his rights, Deaton was interviewed and reportedly admitted to “only watching adult porn.” His cell phone and a 2GB memory card were seized as evidence. A forensic scan of the phone reportedly found 40 images containing CSAM, including one of the images from the Cyber ​​Tips.

Based on Harper's findings and further investigation, an arrest warrant signed by Judge Meredith Switzer was issued on Wednesday and served on Deaton a short time later.