People v. Collins CA6

I. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

The Santa Clara County District Attorney filed an information charging defendant with one count of possession of child pornography (§ 311.11, subd. (a)) on September 6, 2012. The following evidence was adduced at defendant’s trial in the fall of 2013. San Jose Police Officer Sean Pierce testified that he uses a law enforcement Web site to identify individuals in the San Jose area who possess child pornography. On that Web site, Pierce searches for computers in the area that have files containing commonly used child pornography search terms in their shared folders. On September 26, 2011, one such search indicated that a computer associated with a particular Internet protocol (IP) address contained six files associated with child pornography search terms. After confirming that one of the files in fact contained child pornography, Pierce obtained and served a search warrant on Comcast, the Internet service provider associated with the IP address. Comcast identified defendant as the subscriber for the IP address and provided Pierce with his name and home address. On March 7, 2012, officers searched defendant’s home pursuant to a search…