Austin man pleads not guilty to child porn charges
Published 10:23 am Friday, January 23, 2015
An Austin man facing multiple gun-related charges pleaded not guilty Thursday for child pornography-related crimes.
Thavinh Kullavongsa, 32, was charged this month with two counts of possessing child pornographic works, both felonies.
He and his brother Phouminh Kullavongsa, 34, were previously charged with four counts of possessing guns as a felon and one count of fifth-degree marijuana possession.
Police arrested the two shortly after 7 a.m. Dec. 18 after witnesses reported gunshots coming from the basement of an apartment home at the 1400 block of Eighth Avenue Northwest.
Officers heard firecrackers coming from the area and found the suspects in the basement. The two were arrested after police found shell casings in the driveway and a stairwell.
Police found four guns in their home: a Kahr .45-caliber pistol, ATI .22-caliber pistol, Glock 9mm pistol and a New England Arms 12-gauge shotgun. Two glass methamphetamine pipes, a scale, some fireworks and about 402 grams of marijuana were also found.
After their arrests, a worker hired to clean out the apartment turned on a desktop computer in Thavinh’s room only to see a folder on the computer’s desktop with images of young girls. Deputies later took the desktop computer, a laptop, five hard drives, and various memory cards into evidence.
Law enforcement found one folder containing 23 videos of child pornography. Another computer drive had 33 videos.
Thavinh told police his brother and another man had recently moved into the apartment but did nothing with the computers. He allegedly admitted to looking at the videos and said he was thinking about deleting them.
Thavinh was convicted of second-degree assault in 2004 and terroristic threats in 2006. His next court appearance is in May.