Carrow pleads guilty to child porn possession

An area man pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography in St. Francois County Wednesday morning, receiving two 15-year suspended prison sentences and ordered to serve shock incarceration and supervised probation. The man was charged in 2018 following a Missouri State Highway Patrol (MSHP) investigation into illegal online activity.

Kenneth “Kenny” Carrow, 58, of Bonne Terre, appeared before Circuit Judge Wendy Wexler Horn in court on Wednesday. He withdrew previous pleas of not guilty, pleading guilty to two counts of possession of child pornography. The man had initially faced an additional count of promoting child pornography, but that charge was dismissed at the plea hearing.

At the hearing, Carrow waived a sentencing assessment report. The judge then accepted the prosecution’s recommendations, handing down 15-year suspended sentences on each of the two counts. The judge ordered the suspended prison terms to run consecutively for a total of 30 years.

With the execution of the sentences stayed, Carrow was placed on five years of supervised probation and ordered to serve 120 days of shock time in the St. Francois County Detention Center on a schedule to be set up by his probation officer. Court filings indicate the man is to serve the probation while supervised under the sex offender caseload of the State Board of Probation and Parole.

Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Shane Porter appeared on behalf of the state at Wednesday’s hearing. Carrow was represented by his attorney, Jeremy Brauer.

Carrow was charged with the crimes in early 2018 after authorities reportedly searched his home and found electronic devices containing explicit, illegal content involving children.

According to court documents and original reports, officers with the MSHP’s Division of Drug and Crime Control were conducting an online investigation on Jan. 21, 2018, when they found a file being made available online.

According to the initial reports, the investigators reportedly downloaded the file from Carrow’s IP address, which contained several photos that appeared to have been captured from a video. Authorities described the illicit images, which showed a girl believed to be around 8 to 10 years old.

An officer said in the report that by using public records, police could determine the IP address was registered to Charter Communications. On Jan. 30, 2018, the officer reportedly received information from Charter following a search warrant sent to the company for the IP address.

The information received consisted of Carrow’s name, address, account number, phone number, and two email addresses, which included his work email, according to the original report.

On Feb. 13, 2018, officers contacted Carrow at his Bonne Terre home with a search warrant to locate child pornography, police said at the time. After speaking with Carrow, investigators reportedly determined he lived alone at the house.

Per the report, Carrow was read his Miranda Rights and interviewed on the spot while investigators searched his home. During the search, authorities found a desktop computer and several external hard drives.

It was noted at the time, one hard drive was found hidden under his waterbed, and when asked about it, Carrow reportedly said he hid the hard drive as they were knocking on his door. The man also allegedly told police he hid the drive because he thought they were there to talk to him about the television shows he had been downloading from the internet.

The computer and hard drives were previewed on the scene, and file-sharing software was allegedly found on the PC. The reporting officer said he saw deleted files on the hard drives, which appeared to be child pornography.

The officer reviewed two of the files that were located. The original reports indicated the first file found was a nearly three-minute-long video showing partially unclothed female children who appeared to be 12 to 14 years old. The other video was also about three minutes long and reportedly depicted nude children around the same age.

Carrow was booked at the St. Francois County Detention Center on Feb. 14, 2018, later posting a $150,000 surety bond and being released on Feb. 28, 2018.

Following the arrest, MSHP Public Information Officer Shawn Griggs said the Digital Forensics Investigative Unit (DFIU), a part of the Division of Drug and Crime Control, handled the investigation.

Griggs added, the Division of Drug and Crime Control encourages internet users to promptly report anyone who attempts to engage in unwanted, inappropriate, or sexualized communications with children to the patrol or local law enforcement.

Kenneth “Kenny” Carrow

Bobby Radford is a reporter for the Daily Journal. He can be reached at bradford@dailyjournalonline.com