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Officials testify in child porn trial

• A federal grand jury issued a four-count indictment against Lowery in 2007, court documents show.

J.D. Sumner

ALBANY — Prosecutors continued with their part of a child pornography case against an Americus man they say used his office computer to view illegal pictures of children.

Thomas Conrad Lowery of Americus has been on trial this week in federal court to face a federal indictment charging that he possessed images of child pornography and transported minors in two separate incidents to Los Angeles and Canada.

Thursday, federal prosecutors called Chief GBI Investigator Don Davis and former Sumter County Sheriff’s Department Internal Affairs Supervisor Keith Landers to testify about their roles in the investigation.

As both Lowery and his family looked on, Davis spoke to the timeline in which GBI agents investigated Lowery including when they issued search warrants at his home, seized his personal and office computers, and arrested the former Information Systems Manager for the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office.

Lowery was arrested in 2004 after investigators said they found images of child pornography on his computer at the Sumter Sheriff’s Office.

Upon cross examination, Lowery’s attorney, William Murray, questioned the investigators about the genesis of their investigation and about another employee who had access to Lowery’s workstation at the Sheriff’s office.

The defense is expected to begin their phase of the case either today or the beginning of next week.

Earlier this week, jurors heard from the victim of the case, a boy who, at the time, was 11-years-old when he and his guardian boarded a flight from Orlando headed to Los Angeles to meet Lowery for what they believed was a meeting to enhance the boy’s acting career.

Instead, the victim and his guardian said that Lowery acted in an inappropriate manner when they were in a hotel room and they quickly returned to Orlando.

No charges were filed by state or local officials after that incident.

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