A Bisbee man charged with allegedly sharing a single image of child pornography via the internet in early 2019 won’t stand trial for several months, after his pretrial conference was postponed this week due to concern over the COVID-19 virus.
Darren Kendall Wilburn was arrested in March 2019 following a cybertip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) about the transmission of suspected child pornography from an IP account assigned to Cable One. He is alleged to have transmitted one image of a nude prepubescent female on or about Feb. 6, 2019.
Wilburn, 54, has been ordered to court May 15 for a trial setting hearing, but the trial won’t take place until late summer or early fall due to scheduling delays prompted by the coronavirus. In the meantime, Wilburn is out of custody pending trial.
Court documents show Wilburn came under investigation by the Cochise County Sheriff’s Office (CCSO) after Microsoft contacted NCMEC, a non-profit organization which serves as a national clearinghouse for reports of child pornography. NCMEC works closely with law enforcement agencies to identify the Internet Protocol (IP) address used to transmit elicit images and videos.
The NCMEC tip was assigned to CCSO Det. Todd Borquez, who served a subpoena on Cable One to identify the registered user of the IP address. That user, according to the company, was Wilburn with an address south of Bisbee near Naco.
In a statement of probable cause after Wilburn’s arrest, Borquez noted Wilburn’s home had been placed under physical surveillance based Wilburn’s work as a tactical training specialist and firearms instructor. The arrest, the detective noted, also led to information that Wilburn had a second residence in the Bisbee area.
Both addresses were searched subsequent to Wilburn’s arrest.
Borquez also noted in his statement that Wilburn was in possession of a computer thumb drive when arrested. More than 50 images of child pornography were on the thumb, although Wilburn has not been charged in connection with those images.
Earlier this month, Judge Laura Cardinal granted a motion by defense attorney Ivan Abrams for nearly $8,000 to pay Lonnie Dworkin, a Scottsdale-based certified computer forensics examiner, to analyze the evidence in the case and testify at trial. The judge also issued an order allowing the evidence to be transferred to Dworkin’s office.
Wilburn faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison -up to a maximum of 24 years- if convicted of the single count in the county grand jury indictment.