By Linda Williams
Staff Writer
Cypress resident and former Baylor student Aaron Legrand Sims, 18, was arrested Jan. 11 on charges of possession of child pornography after Baylor police searched his Heritage House dorm room in North Village Residential Community and seized his computer.
According to Baylor Police Chief Jim Doak, the police obtained a search warrant for his room after “another individual” reported that Sims might have suspicious content in his possession.
Doak said the search was very specific and revealed several “questionable images” that were determined to be child pornography.
Sims was charged with possession of child pornography, which is a third-degree felony. The punishment for these charges varies between cases and depends on the number and type of offenses.
Sims posted $10,000 in bond later on the day he was arrested. A court date is presently unknown.
Sims remained “very cooperative during the entire duration of the search and interview process,” Doak said.
A similar case arose and recently ended in a conviction when former Baylor junior Nicholas Ochoa was arrested and charged with possession of child pornography in January 2010.
Ochoa had taken his laptop to the Baylor residential technology center to have information transferred to an external hard drive. During the transfer, a residential technology employee noticed suspicious sexual content and contacted his employer, who reported the content to the police.
The police obtained a search warrant and found more explicit content on other media devices in Ochoa’s dorm room.
Ochoa posted bail and was released on a $30,000 bond.
He was convicted after he pleaded guilty in December 2011, fined $1,000 and sentenced to 10 years probation.
The two cases are not connected and the students are no longer enrolled at Baylor.
According to the Texas Penal Code, Section 43.26, a person commits a criminal offense if he or she “knowingly or intentionally possesses visual material that visually depicts a child younger than 18 years of age at the time the image of the child was made who is engaging in sexual conduct.”