Kingsport Man Found Guilty In Federal Court

After a trial lasting three days, an east Tennessee man has been found guilty on Child pornography charges. 53 year old Gary Lynn Hammonds of Kingsport was found guilty by a jury in federal court in Greeneville this morning of knowingly distributing child pornography, knowingly receiving child pornography and knowingly possessing child pornography involving a child less than 12 years of age. Back in July of 2018, a search warrant obtained by the Kingsport police department was served at Hammonds home where investigators found he possessed over 1,000 videos and images containing child pornography on a laptop computer and external hard drives that were found in his home. Hammonds distributed child pornography online using peer-to-peer file sharing software. The investigation was initiated by a Hawkins County Sheriff’s Office Internet Crime Against Children (ICAC) investigator who identified Hammonds as an internet user on that network who was actively sharing child pornography online. Hammonds will be sentenced on October 20th…he faces a maximum sentence of twenty years in prison for each offense and a five-year minimum mandatory sentence for counts one and two.