| Shawna Morrison

shawna.morrison@roanoke.com, 381-1665

A Dublin man was sentenced Wednesday to spend about 19 years in prison for possessing child pornography.

At a daylong jury trial in April in Pulaski County Circuit Court, Clinton Claude Quesenberry, 46, was convicted of 149 counts of possessing child pornography.

The jury recommended that he be sentenced to 12 months in jail and pay a $1,000 fine for each of the first 19 counts. For each of the remaining counts, the jury recommended Quesenberry serve no additional jail time but pay a $1,000 fine, for a total of 228 months to serve and $149,000 in fines.

Circuit Court Judge Bobby Turk imposed that recommendation at a sentencing hearing Wednesday.

He also ordered Quesenberry to spend three years on supervised probation after his release.

The maximum sentence possible for each conviction was up to five years in prison and a fine up to $2,500.

On a conviction of possessing ammunition as a convicted felon, Quesenberry was sentenced Wednesday to three years in prison to run concurrently with the rest of his sentence.

Quesenberry's defense attorney, Joe Painter, has said Quesenberry opted for a jury trial because he maintains that the images found at his home weren't his. Most child pornography cases in the New River Valley end with plea deals.

Quesenberry was first charged in October 2008 with 18 counts. The other charges were added after items seized from his home, including two computers taken from his bedroom and two flash drives taken from his pants pockets, were analyzed.

Pulaski County Commonwealth's Attorney Mike Fleenor said thousands of images were found on the computers and flash drives, but charges were placed only when it was obvious the girls in the pictures were about 10 or younger.