Cowley man accepts plea deal in Texas child pornography case

Thirty-nine-year-old Gregory Brimhall Weinand of Cowley has accepted a plea deal in a case brought against him last spring by authorities in Montgomery County Texas. The original charges against him included five counts of possession with the intent to promote child pornography.

According to court records, Weinand pleaded guilty to two of the five charges against him, and the remaining three charges were dismissed by the court. Each charge carries a sentence requiring Weinand to serve 12 years in a Texas Department of Criminal Justice facility.

Weinand was arrested in Cowley last spring after he communicated through the Internet with an undercover law enforcement agent out of Texas trained specifically to investigate child exploitation. After suspecting Weinand was in possession of child pornography, the undercover agent tracked Weinand’s physical location to Wyoming through his computer’s IP address. His identity was further confirmed through facial recognition software and various other means, including a social media search and information obtained through subpoenas sent to Internet providers. A warrant was issued for his arrest.

Weinand was arrested in Cowley by Big Horn County Sheriff’s deputies on the warrant and extradited to Texas. He is currently being held in the Montgomery County, Texas, jail pending transfer to a facility where he will serve his sentence. 

Since it is not his case, Big Horn County Sheriff Ken Blackburn declined to comment on the specifics of the Weinand case, but did note that this is a “classic example” of “people mistakenly thinking they are anonymous on the Internet when, in fact, they are not anonymous.” 

Blackburn said the sheriff’s department has investigated several cases like this within Big Horn County and is currently investigating similar cases. He cautioned anyone thinking about this type of criminal activity to think twice about it.

Charging documents in the case described five graphic pornographic videos depicting children estimated in age from infant to age 7 found in Weinand’s possession that led to the charges. The videos were referred to in the documents as a “representative sample” of 175 images that were in Weinand’s possession. The document stated that “the majority of the (175) videos and images were child pornography.” The charging documents were made available to the Chronicle in June of last year through a Freedom of Information Act request submitted by the newspaper to Montgomery County, Texas, authorities.

According to court documents currently available to the public, Weinand will be credited 210 days for the time he served in jail while his case was pending. The court also ordered him to pay an assessed fee of $415. Additionally, the court ordered destruction of the evidence in the case and required Weinand to register as a sex offender, in accordance with Texas law. 

 “Our hearts go out to any families affected by this sort of crime on both sides of the fence,” Blackburn said. “This is not a victimless crime. There are many victims and everyone affected is hurt badly by these acts.”

Possession of child pornography is a crime in Wyoming. The sexual exploitation of a child is a felony in the state punishable by imprisonment of five to 10 years and a fine up to $10,000, or both.