On December 8, after hearing closing arguments from both the prosecution and the defense, the 12-person jury began deliberating Josh Duggar’s trial. Nearly 16 hours after being handed the trial, the jury found Josh Duggar guilty of downloading and possessing child pornography.
Less than 24 hours after the prosecution rested their case and the defense attempted to acquit Josh Duggar of the charges against him, the defense also rest their case. However, it was a bit of a shock when the defense rested their case after only questioning two witnesses.
BREAKING: Josh Duggar Found Guilty of Downloading and Possessing Child Pornography
As KNWA reported, the honesty of one of those witnesses was called into question. According to reports, defense digital forensics expert witness Michele Bush’s experience was called into question when it was revealed she had only just graduated from college in 2015.
While being questioned by both the defense and the prosecution, Bush admitted this “might be” the first time she was ever called to testify as an expert witness in a federal case. She further revealed that she had very little to no training in Linux or the Torrential Downpour software used by law enforcement.
As Mamas Uncut further reported, after the prosecution rested their case on Monday, December 6 after presenting sufficient evidence to the jury in Josh Duggar’s child pornography case, his defense made a move. As People reports, Josh’s legal team asked the judge to acquit him of all the charges.
According to the former reality TV star’s lawyer, Justin Gelfand, he argued that the prosecution did not provide “sufficient evidence of known possession” or “evidence of actually knowing receipt by Mr. Duggar of child pornography.” He claimed that computer forensic analyst James Fottrell provided insufficient evidence during his testimony.
Gelfand argued that Fottrell didn’t prove that the cache file found on Josh Duggar’s work computer was received or possessed by him. However, Assistant United States Attorney Carly Marshall disagreed, saying in response, “I believe that evidence sufficient to go to the jury has been heard.”
After summarizing Fottrell’s evidence, the judge presiding over the trial, Judge Timothy L. Brooks, he agreed with Marshall, saying he believed that there was “well more than sufficient evidence” and satisfied the conditions to move forward. He then denied the defense’s acquittal.
This was just the last of many previous failed attempts by Josh Duggar’s defense to have this case dismissed. Several of Josh’s family members, including his wife Anna Duggar, were present during the week-and-a-half-long trial, their reactions to the guilty verdict have not yet been revealed.
During the trial, the jury also learned of Josh Duggar’s past, including his admission of molesting four minor girls while he was a teenager himself. It was believed some of his siblings would testify at his trial, but that never happened.
Josh Duggar, who became a father of seven while on house arrest in October, now faces up to 20 years in prison for his crimes.
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