FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Jury Finds Covington Man Guilty of Possessing Child Pornography
November 22, 2024
District Attorney Collin Sims reports that on November 20, 2024, a St. Tammany Parish jury found 53-year-old Scott Gaskill of Covington guilty of possessing seven images of child pornography involving victims under the age thirteen. Assistant District Attorneys Christina Fisher and Taylor Nicholson presented the case to the jury with Judge Richard Swartz presiding. Special Agent April Lucia with the Louisiana Bureau of Investigation (LBI) headed the investigation with assistance from then LBI Supervisory Special Agent Brian Brown, who is now with the Covington Police Department.
According to testimony from the trial, LBI received a tip in 2019 from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that six child sexual abuse images had been uploaded through a Tumblr account associated with a particular IP address. Digital copies of the images were provided to LBI. Investigation linked the IP address to the defendant’s residence in Covington. LBI agents obtained a search warrant for the residence and executed the warrant in May, 2019. While agents were at the residence, Gaskill arrived home from work. When questioned about viewing “child pornography,” he denied it but acknowledged he was a frequent viewer of “adult pornography.” He conceded having a Tumblr account that was shut down and when asked why it was shut down, he replied “I think for what you’re talking about.”
Several electronic devices were seized during the search. The devices were later examined by a forensic expert and one additional image of child pornography was recovered. Also recovered from the devices was evidence Gaskill had viewed countless images of “child erotica” (i.e., images that depict nearly naked, suggestively posed, and inappropriately sexualized children). Gaskill had shared one of the “child erotica” images on his Tumblr account and commented “Mmmmhmmmm, so naughty.”
At the trial, Gaskin testified he had an addiction to “legal adult pornography” and that he did not “recall” uploading any child sexual abuse images. During closing arguments, defense counsel urged the jury to acquit the defendant because of the tens of thousands of images found on his devices, only one depicted “child pornography” and he did not intentionally possess it among all the other images on his devices. In her closing argument, ADA Christina Fisher told the jurors that defense counsel in essence was asking them to acquit the defendant because he only possessed a “little bit” of “child pornography.”
After slightly more than one hour of deliberations, the jury returned guilty verdicts on all seven counts. Judge Swartz has scheduled Gaskill’s sentencing for January 8, 2025. Each of the seven charges carries a sentence range of ten (10) to forty (40) years in prison.