Howland man guilty in animal, child sex abuse case
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WARREN -- Jurors took 30 minutes Tuesday to return a guilty verdict on 11 child and animal sex abuse charges against a Howland man to conclude a one-day trial that also included jury selection in addition to opening and closing arguments.
Trumbull County Common Pleas Judge Ronald Rice set a Sept. 3 sentencing date for Trent Addicott, 27, following the reading of the guilty verdicts on four counts of pandering sexually oriented matter involving a minor, two counts of pandering obscenity to minors, all second-degree felonies, and five misdemeanor charges of sexual misconduct with an animal.
He was indicted by a Trumbull County grand jury in mid-June. Addicott was arrested in May after Howland police and TAG detectives from the Trumbull County Sheriff's Office conducted a search warrant on Addicott's Fairview Avenue residence.
Trumbull County Assistant Prosecutor Gabe Wildman spoke afterwards about his thoughts on the swift verdict.
"He's guilty across the board on all counts, the evidence was overwhelming," Wildman said. "It was almost all on video, the acts are obviously horrific, child abuse, animal abuse, it covers all the bases here. We're happy that jurors did what they did. We think it was the appropriate result."
At that upcoming sentencing hearing, Wildman said Addicott faces the potential of 48–to-52 years in prison, along with registering as a Tier 2 sex offender.
"He failed to accept any responsibility. It would be hard to imagine a scenario where we don't try to hold him fully accountable for his horrific actions," Wildman said.
The prosecution's case relied on photo and video evidence initially flagged by Snapchat. The video footage shown to jurors during the trial depicted five instances of Addicott engaged in sexual activity with a dog, one of which was in the presence of a 2-year-old child. Photographs also were presented as evidence depicting Addicott touching himself with the minor nearby.
Wildman walked jurors through how the flagged videos sent a cybertip to expert witness Arabelle Skelly, an analyst for the Ohio Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, who testified that she reviewed the flagged material and sent a subpoena to the internet service provider.
The information was linked back to Addicott via an email address, IP address, cell phone number and an address associated with the defendant, leading Skelly to contacting the Howland Township Police Department.
The case came across the desk of Howland police detective Nicholas Brancaccio, who conducted a search of the Fairlawn Ave. residence on May 30, where the videos were filmed by Addicott. Brancaccio said a nervous, but cooperative, Addicott willingly provided information that any evidence of "child sex abuse material" investigators were looking for were located on an iPad.
After reviewing the material, Brancaccio said he was able to identify Addicott by facial recognition of him and the minor depicted in the video, along with identifiers from the home such as furniture matching the images he took of the home during the search.
The defendant's attorney, Jeffrey Goodman, disputed what he characterized as a lack of evidence specifically linking his client to creation of the footage.
Goodman asked the jury not to be "blinded" by the contents of the video evidence.