PIERCE COUNTY, Wash. — It took jurors just a little over two hours to find 64-year-old Steven Powell guilty of possessing child porn for taking pictures of two neighbor girls ages 8 and 10 as they used a family bathroom. He now faces up to five years in prison.
In closing arguments Monday morning Deputy Pierce County Attorney Bryce Nelson told jurors Powell admitted he enjoyed taking pictures of girls of any age in a journal he kept, writing that he used the pictures for sexual gratification.
“The defendant’s own words, the defendant’s journal entry tells us that these images were used for sexual gratification,” Nelson said.
The often explicit pictures of the girls were found during a search of Powell's South Hill home in 2011 when West Valley City, Utah, police served a search warrant as part of their investigation into the disappearance of Susan Cox Powell in December 2009. They were taken secretly from Powell’s bedroom between 2006 and 2007
Her husband Josh Powell was then considered a person of interest in the case and moved into his father's home shortly after she vanished. Susan Powell has never been found. Josh Powell later killed himself and his sons Charlie and Braden in a fiery explosion at his home in Graham in February 2012.
Powell's defense attorney Travis Currie told the jury the pictures may have been found at Powell's home and in his room but there were other people living with him at the time and no direct proof he actually took photographs of the two young girls living next door.
“Nobody can tell you who took the photographs beyond a reasonable doubt,” said Currie.
Jurors didn’t buy the argument. Powell is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 21.
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