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[DO NOT PUBLISH]
IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT
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No. 19-15151
Non-Argument Calendar
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D.C. Docket No. 6:19-cr-00047-RBD-DCI-1
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
Plaintiff-Appellee,
versus
JAMES JOHN EDWARDS,
Defendant-Appellant.
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Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Middle District of Florida
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(November 23, 2020)
Before WILLIAM PRYOR, Chief Judge, WILSON and FAY, Circuit Judges.
PER CURIAM:
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James John Edwards appeals his conviction for possessing child
pornography. 18 U.S.C. § 2252A(a)(5)(B), (b)(2). Edwards challenges the denial
of his motion to suppress his statement that he had computers in his bedroom, the
sufficiency of the evidence that he knowingly possessed child pornography, and
the admission of a thumb drive containing images and video recordings of child
pornography that duplicated files found on his computer. We affirm.
The district court did not err by denying Edwards’s motion to suppress.
Edwards did not make an “unambiguous and unequivocal” request for counsel
before he told two federal agents that his computers were in his bedroom. See
Davis v. United States, 512 U.S. 452, 459 (1994); Craig v. Singletary, 127 F.3d
1030, 1039 (11th Cir. 1997). Fifteen minutes after Edwards waived his rights to
remain silent and to counsel and answered interrogators’ questions about
downloading child pornography, he remarked, “I have an attorney that, you know,
uh, I — I should probably be talking to.” Edwards’s indecisive reference to
counsel, like the suspect’s remark in Davis that “Maybe I should talk to a lawyer,”
conveyed “only that [Edwards] might be invoking the right to counsel,” and did
“not require the cessation of questioning.” Davis, 512 U.S. at 459–61. Edwards
then immediately agreed to continue the interrogation. When an agent offered to
“get away from the whole child porn . . . topic for a minute, Okay?,” Edwards
responded, “Sure.” Edwards also replied, “Okay,” to the follow-up question
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whether he was “okay with that.” Because Edwards did not clearly state that he
wanted counsel, the agents could continue to question him. Cf. Cannady v.
Duggar, 931 F.2d 752, 755 (11th Cir. 1991) (suppressing statements made after
interrogator knew suspect had requested counsel).
After Edwards stated that his computers were “in [his] room,” he made
another ambiguous reference to counsel. Although the agents were not “requir[ed]
. . . to ask clarifying questions,” they asked Edwards whether he was invoking his
right to counsel, and when he responded affirmatively, they ended his
interrogation. See Davis, 512 U.S. at 461–62. Edwards did not clearly invoke his
right to counsel before stating that his computer was in his bedroom, so the district
court was not required to exclude his statement about the location of his
computers.
Ample evidence proved that Edwards knowingly possessed child
pornography. See United States v. Beale, 921 F.2d 1412, 1435 (11th Cir. 1991).
Evidence seized from Edwards’s room proved that he intentionally stockpiled
electronic files that “showed minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct.” See
United States v. Alfaro-Moncada, 607 F.3d 720, 733 (11th Cir. 2010) (defining
“knowingly possesses”). Agents who executed a search warrant at Edwards’s home
discovered in his bedroom the only computer equipment that was connected and
operable. That equipment included a Dell desktop computer and an external hard
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drive. Edwards’s girlfriend stated that Edwards had exclusive access to the
computer, which was attached to a hard drive that contained his family
photographs, records for his computer-repair business, and copies of his resume, an
employment reference, and invoices that all reflected his knowledge of
programming, software, and hardware repair. The hard drive had been
reconfigured to divide its operating-system and program software from its data
storage, which stored more than 300 images and 1,000 video recordings of child
pornography. The hard drive revealed that Picasa, a photo organizer program, and
multimedia software players, like PotPlayer and KMP Player, had been used to
view images and to create numerous playlists containing hundreds of video
recordings of child pornography. The hard drive also revealed that the default
settings for BitTorrent, a peer-to-peer file sharing program, had been changed to
download images and video recordings of child pornography to a specifically-
designated file and that those materials had been moved into a separately-located
series of folders. And the titles of the video recordings revealed their contents
using terms like “!!!XXX PTHC – family fun pedo parents do their two 8YO boys
little libidos (Mom sex kiddies, they child peepeecum on dads(1).mpg)”; “Pthc
center pova 2013 4YR girl having sex and cumming inside hole(2).wmv”; and
“Pthc Asian 8YO girl on bed – full rape new.avi.” Based on this evidence, a
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reasonable jury could have found that Edwards used his technological expertise to
possess the cache of child pornography.
The district court also did not abuse its discretion when it admitted into
evidence the thumb drive of the child pornography seized from Edwards’s
bedroom. Evidence that is relevant is admissible. Fed. R. Evid. 401. The flash
drive contained the same files of child pornography found on Edwards’s computer
and was relevant to determine whether Edwards, and not someone else, had
collected the large amount of child pornography. See Alfaro-Moncada, 607 F.3d at
734. The district court also mitigated any undue prejudice by limiting the quantity
and character of the evidence published to the jury. See Fed. R. Evid. 403; United
States v. Dodds, 347 F.3d 893, 897 (11th Cir. 2003). The district court admitted the
flash drive on the condition that it would not be published to the jury during trial or
closing statements. The jury then saw only seven still images and one video
recording from the collection of child pornography found on the computer. Even if,
as Edwards speculates, the jury viewed additional images on the flash drive during
its one hour of deliberations, those images could not have had a “substantial and
injurious effect or influence” on the verdict in the light of the overwhelming
evidence of Edwards’s guilt. See United States v. Phaknikone, 605 F.3d 1099, 1109
(11th Cir. 2010).
We AFFIRM Edwards’s conviction.
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