Volunteer fireman out of jail on child porn charges
Jun. 13—FAIRMONT — A Baxter man is out of jail after posting bond on charges of child pornography.
Officers with the Marion County Sheriff's Office arrested 51-year-old David Leroy Showalter on June 4 after a four-month investigation.
According to the criminal complaint, Showalter caught the attention of law enforcement on Feb. 18 when he was logged on to the KIK messenger app under the username Stumpy215 and the accompanying email address of jbigmate69@gmail.com.
Police said that night, Showalter uploaded videos at least twice and "shared it with another group of users," states the complaint.
The investigation found that each video was one-minute and five seconds in length and showed pornographic images of underage male children.
Detectives identified the internet protocol address and took the steps to obtain a subpoena what was later served on Comcast IP Services so police could obtain copies of the videos as evidence.
According to the complaint, the IP address led detectives to Showalter's home in Baxter.
"A Subsequent search warrant was obtained for that address to seize and process any electronic evidence," states the complaint.
Officers went to Showalter's home and conducted a forensic examination of all of the computers there.
Police said they found "a single image of obvious child pornography still contained in the recycle bin on the hard drive of the laptop found in David Leroy Showalter's bedroom that he shared with his wife," states the complaint.
Further searching showed Showalter used the number 215 in other applications on his computer. That's when they discovered that Showalter was a volunteer firefighter for the Baxter Volunteer Fire Department.
During an interview with deputies on June 4, police said, "Showalter made admissions to controlling the KIK Messenger Account [that was] used to upload those files; admitted to viewing, sharing, uploading/downloading approximately 1,000 images of 10 to 15 year old children engaged in sexual activity...," states the criminal complaint.
Showalter also admitted that he accessed KIK Messenger "at least once daily for the past year to year and a half" so he could view and then share images of child pornaography to "a group that shared them on the application."
Reach Eric Cravey at 304-367-2523.
