ANADARKO — A Caddo County judge has handed a 100-year prison term to a Cyril man who allegedly possessed scores of compact discs containing child pornography. Dennis Lamont Kennedy, 60, entered an Alford plea to 20 counts of possession of child pornography. During sentencing on Monday, District Judge Richard G. Van Dyck ordered Kennedy to serve five-year sentences for each count, and to serve those sentences consecutively.
The Alford plea allows Kennedy to maintain his innocence while avoiding a trial. Assistant District Attorney Leslie March said she expects Kennedy to appeal the sentence on grounds that the evidence should have been lumped together into one single charge.
“The defense's point of view is they felt it should have been only one count,” she said. “We expect him to appeal.”
The charges stem from the Nov. 11 search of Kennedy's home by Cyril police. According to an affidavit by Cyril Police Chief Jay Huff, Kennedy admitted having child pornography in his home when Huff and two other Cyril officers entered his home with a search warrant.
“I advised him that we were looking for child pornography,” Huff said in the affidavit. “Kennedy said that he had some on his home computer and had downloaded a lot of discs in his desk.”
Huff said he found about 220 CDs containing child pornography, with victims on the discs ranging from 4 to 10 years old in age.
The 20 counts were necessary because the instances of Kennedy downloading or otherwise attaining the pornography happened over an extended period of time, March said.
An amended information in the case cites 13 CDs, three photo albums, three DVDs and 400 other photos on two computers as the basis of the charges.
Besides the 20 consecutive jail terms, Kennedy was also ordered to pay a $100 fine per count.
March said that if Kennedy won his appeal to have the counts merged, the state would ask a jury to give him the full penalty, which is 20 years per count.
