Opinion ID: 2635616
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Was There Sufficient Evidence To Support A Conviction As Charged Of Sexual Exploitation Of A Child Under The Age Of Fourteen?

Text: Trautloff maintains that the State failed to present sufficient evidence to support his conviction of sexual exploitation of a child. He specifically contends that the State failed to provide evidence that he had promoted the sexual exploitation of a child by displaying the pictures that J.M. and he took. Although Trautloff bases this issue on the language of the complaint, he does not contend that the complaint was deficient. He does not argue that the complaint lacked an essential element; instead, he argues that the complaint was more specific than the statute requires and that the State failed to prove an element that it included in the complaint. K.S.A. 21-3516(a) sets out six different forms of conduct that constitute sexual exploitation of a child. K.S.A. 21-3516(a)(6) prohibits promoting any performance that includes sexually explicit conduct by a child under 14 years of age, knowing the character and content of the performance. K.S.A. 21-3516(b)(2) defines promoting to mean procuring, selling, providing, lending, mailing, delivering, transferring, transmitting, distributing, circulating, disseminating, presenting, producing, directing, manufacturing, issuing, publishing, displaying, exhibiting or advertising. . . (B) with intent to arouse or gratify the sexual desire or appeal to the prurient interest of the offender, the child or another. Count 4 of the second amended complaint charged Trautloff with sexual exploitation of a child. The complaint alleged that he promoted the performance of sexually explicit conduct by a child under 14 years of age with the intent to arouse and satisfy the sexual desires or appeal to the prurient interest of the defendant, the child, or another and displayed said picture, an off grid felony, in violation of K.S.A. 21-3516(a)(6). (Emphasis added.) The State filed the second amended complaint on the day the jury trial began. The same language appeared in the previous two versions of the complaint. Trautloff maintains on appeal that the complaint correctly charged an alternative form of promoting, specifically emphasizing the element of displaying a picture or photograph, and the State failed to present evidence showing that he displayed a photograph. In its response, the State does not argue that the wording of the information was inadvertent and incorrect; the State instead contends that the jury heard sufficient evidence to convict Trautloff on a theory of displaying a picture with intent to arouse or gratify the sexual desire or appeal to the prurient interest of the offender, the child, or another. When the sufficiency of the evidence is challenged in a criminal case, this court reviews all the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution to determine whether the court is convinced that a rational factfinder could have found the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. State v. Gutierrez, 285 Kan. 332, 336, 172 P.3d 18 (2007). The jury heard evidence about how the photographs were utilized after they were taken. J.M. testified that Trautloff wanted me to get pictures of [R.M.] and he wanted to see her. . . . He didn't care how I got them, in panties, T-shirts, nothing on, bras, just however I got them I got them. J.M. testified that she assisted Trautloff in taking photographs of him engaging in sexual acts with R.M. [s]o that he could look at them later and they would excite him. She further testified that she had observed Trautloff looking at the photographs at the same Village Inn Motel where the photographs had been shot. In addition, she testified that she took a video of Trautloff at the Village Inn Motel at the same time that she took still photographs of Trautloff engaged in sexual conduct with R.M. Her testimony showed that she and Trautloff viewed the video together. Webster's Third New International Dictionary 654 (1993) includes in the definition of the transitive verb display the meaning to spread before the view: exhibit to the sight or mind. Black's Law Dictionary 471 (6th ed.1990) defines to display a work in the context of copyright law as to show a copy of it, either directly or by means of a film, slide, television image, or any other device or process. Not every factual nuance is susceptible to direct proof. A jury may rely on the evidence to make reasonable inferences about the behavior of a defendant. See State v. Tyler, 286 Kan. 1087, 1095, 191 P.3d 306 (2008). A jury that has convicted a defendant is presumed to have believed the State's evidence and to have drawn from that evidence all inferences favorable to the State. State v. Aikins, 261 Kan. 346, 392, 932 P.2d 408 (1997). The evidence showed that Trautloff arranged the settings for the visual recordings and was specific in his instructions to J.M. on when and of what he wanted the recordings made. The only evidence that he also displayed said picture is that at one point he looked at the videotape with her. To satisfy this element, it is sufficient to meet the definition of display even if the audience consists of one or two persons. The evidence suffices to establish the element of the crime that he displayed a picture by exhibiting or showing it with intent to arouse or gratify his own sexual desire or to appeal to the prurient interest of another.