A Samsung tablet suspected of having around 7,000 child pornography photos on it was “unintentionally” run over by its owner in a car, then stolen by a woman in his life, court documents say.
The Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI) says in an affidavit that it was able to download evidence from the tablet anyway.
Jacob Eugene Lechleidner, 47, now faces one count of child pornography possession in Goshen County District Court, which is punishable by up to 10 years in prison and $10,000 in fines. His case rose to felony-court level Thursday.
The investigation started Oct. 16, when the Goshen County Sheriff’s Office received an anonymous report about Lechleidner having possessed a tablet containing child pornography, according to an evidentiary affidavit DCI Special Agent Brett Kniss wrote last month.
Goshen County Sheriff’s Lt. Herbert Irons interviewed a woman who had been living with Lechleidner as recently as September. The woman told the lieutenant that on Sept. 25, she cracked into Lechleidner’s tablet by guessing its security code, and she looked through its photos.
In the photos app she found more than 30 images of what looked like 5- to 7-year-old children with their genitalia exposed, the woman told Irons, according to the affidavit.
She confronted Lechleidner about the photos, sparking a verbal argument, the document says.
Lechleidner called the sheriff’s office, and deputies responded to the argument. After the deputies left, Lechleidner “unintentionally ran over” the tablet, Kniss related from the woman’s interview.
This made him distraught, the woman added, because there were other photos of sentimental value on the device.
The woman then took the tablet without Lechleidner’s permission and stashed it at another female’s house, the affidavit says. She told Irons exactly where it was: in a yellow suitcase, still in that woman’s home.
Yellow Suitcase
Irons acquired a search warrant for the female friend’s home to seize the tablet — and he did Oct. 16. It was in a yellow suitcase just as Lechleidner’s former companion had said, according to the affidavit.
Irons called the DCI computer crime team for help downloading data from the tablet since its screen didn’t work. He also acquired a second warrant Oct. 22 for the data download, says the document.
On Nov. 4, a DCI special agent was able to extract data from the tablet’s operating system. That agent found around 7,000 child pornography files, the affidavit alleges.
Kniss’s affidavit spends some time establishing a link between Lechleidner and the tablet.
The tablet contained selfies of Lechleidner and at least three user accounts, and had been used for his Facebook and email accounts, Kniss wrote.
The time stamps of the tablet’s activity confirm the woman’s claim that she stole it Sept. 25, the document says.
Other time stamps indicate that the tablet’s user was taking screenshots of child porn images starting around Dec. 12, 2023, through Sept. 25, 2024, Kniss wrote.
Arrest
DCI agents and Goshen County Sheriff’s deputies executed a search warrant at Lechleidner’s home Dec. 19. Then they took him to the Torrington Police Department and told him his Miranda rights, the affidavit says.
Lechleidner admitted to possessing the tablet and taking screenshots of child porn on it, and to possessing more child pornography on his smartphone, Kniss wrote.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
