Jacksboro man convicted in Roane County child pornography case

ROANE COUNTY, Tenn. (WATE) — A Jacksboro man who previously lived in Harriman was convicted by a jury in less than 30 minutes during a child pornography trial on Tuesday, according to District Attorney Russell Johnson.

Johnson shared news of the conviction on Facebook, explaining that the defendant showed up a half-hour late, but the entire trial from jury selection to the reading of their ruling happened in just one day.

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On August 6, Joshua Blankenship, 31, was convicted on five counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, the DA said. Johnson explained that the case began four and a half years ago.

In December 2019, the DA’s office was alerted to Blankenship’s possession of child pornography after a Harriman police officer responded to a call reporting possible domestic violence by Blankenship’s now ex-girlfriend. When questioned, Blankenship reportedly told the officer that he and his ex-girlfriend were in a fight because “he forgot to delete nude photographs of an ‘of-age girl,'” Johnson said.

Ultimately, an investigator with the Knox County Sheriff’s Office Cyber Crimes unit discovered child sexual abuse material on three of five devices that Blankenship agreed to release to law enforcement for forensic examination, according to the DA’s office.

During the trial, the officer that spoke with Blankenship in December 2019 and the investigator who examined Blankenship’s devices testified during the trial, and Blankenship chose to testify in his own defense. Johnson said Blankenship claimed he was seeking justice by reporting the websites that housed the material and downloading the images when sites he reported were not taken down.

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“On cross-examination it was uncovered that he downloaded countless images of child sexual abuse material and denied that he was perpetuating the victimization of children through his conduct. Furthermore, he could NOT detail any instance where he reported the images to authorities over the two years he had been downloading child pornography,” the district attorney wrote.

Johnson shared that the most difficult part of the trial was having to carefully and respectfully “publish” five images of more than 200 images of child pornography to each of the 12 jurors.

According to the Johnson, if the judge choses to run the sentences consecutively, Blankenship could face up to 20 years in prison. His sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 22, 2024.

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