A 43-year-old Aneth man already serving supervised release for a 2015 child pornography conviction is now headed to federal prison for 16 years after a jury found he had received and possessed new child sexual abuse material. Johnston Blackhorse was sentenced following a guilty verdict handed down by a jury in April, according to federal prosecutors.
The case traces back to February 2025, when probation officers visited Blackhorse’s home in Aneth as part of his supervised release conditions tied to his 2015 conviction, according to court documents and trial evidence cited by the KUTV report. During that visit, officers searched his computer and found several deleted files depicting child sexual abuse material, the outlet reported. Investigators determined that Blackhorse’s computer had a forensic wiping program installed and that it had been used the same day officers arrived to search it, per the same report.
Search Warrant Turns Up More Evidence
The discovery of the deleted files led investigators to obtain a search warrant, according to the KUTV account. A Homeland Security Investigations forensic examiner subsequently found six images of child sexual abuse material that had been pulled from child pornography websites, the station reported. Additional evidence showed Blackhorse had also accessed other child pornography files on a separate electronic storage device, though that device itself was never recovered during the search, per the outlet’s reporting.
The Justice Department’s U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Utah confirmed the outcome of the case in its own announcement, stating that an Aneth man, with a criminal history of possessing child pornography, was sentenced to 16 years’ imprisonment after a jury convicted him of receiving and possessing child sexual abuse material. In a separate release, the office said a jury returned a guilty verdict on Friday, April 17, 2026, against the San Juan County man, noting that he had received and possessed the material while already on supervised release stemming from his 2015 conviction.
Federal Officials Condemn the Crime
Charles Engle, Homeland Security Investigations’ Denver special agent in charge, addressed the broader harm caused by cases like this one, according to the KUTV report. “People who possess child sexual abuse material fuel an industry built on exploitation, abuse and suffering of children,” Engle said, per the outlet. He added that “every image represents a child whose innocence was stolen,” and that people who seek out the material perpetuate that victimization, the station reported.
Blackhorse will serve his sentence as Utah continues work on its new state prison, built west of Salt Lake City International Airport at a cost of more than $1 billion, according to KUTV’s report. The case was authored and reported by Megan Brugger for the station.
