Frakes sentencing delayed

The sentencing hearing for the Vandalia man convicted of child pornography charges in February has been delayed until early next month.
The sentencing for William Frakes was scheduled for Tuesday afternoon, but his attorney, Monroe McWard of Taylorville, had earlier in the day faxed a motion requesting that it be reset.
The sentencing is now set for 1 p.m. on Friday, June 9
Frakes, 56, was found guilty of three counts of child pornography at the conclusion of a jury trial.
The jury found Frakes guilty of two Class X felonies alleging that he “knowingly obtained a photograph of a child depicted as being bound, actually or by simulation, whom the defendant would have reason to know is under 13 years of age” and a Class 2 felony alleging that Frakes “with knowledge of the nature thereof, possessed a photography, a child whom the defendant reasonably should have known to be under the age of 13 years.”
Fayette County State’s Attorney Joshua Morrison, who prosecuted the case, said that Illinois law mandates that the sentences on the three counts be served consecutively. With the maximum penalties being 30 years for Class X felonies and seven years for Class 2 felonies, the maximum penalty for Frakes is 67 years, Morrison said.
Frakes was represented at trial by Edwardsville attorney Robert Bas.
On April 13, Frakes notified the court that due to disagreements with Bas, he would be seeking new legal counsel. McWard entered his appearance as Frakes’ counsel on April 27.
Frakes was taken into custody on July 18 of last year by Vandalia Police after three child pornography counts were filed by Morrison’s office earlier in the day. The charges were filed after search warrants were executed at Frakes’s residence.
Morrison said that the case was initiated when Flickr, an online photo storage site owned by Yahooo, notified the National Center for Exploited Children of photos recognized as child pornography.
The NCEC, in turn, notified the Illinois Attorney General’s Office, which, in turn, contacted Scott Morrison, a Greenville Police sergeant who serves as an investigator with the AG’s child pornography task force, Joshua Morrison said.
During his investigation, Scott Morrison was unable to get a phone in Frakes’ possession to charge, and he contacted Joseph L. Purfield Jr. of the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office, who assisted with that procedure.
Both Scott Morrison and Purfield were among the prosecution witnesses during the trial, which included the presentation of three photos, two of sexual nature that depict a child under the age of 13 in a bound position and one that has a sexual connotation, Joshua Morrison said.
The state’s attorney, in his case, said that Frakes uploaded the photos to his phone and also to Flickr. While the photos were deleted from the phone, Morrison said, they were not deleted from the Flickr account.
During his opening statement, Bas contended that the photos inadvertently showed up on Frakes’s phone, and that he did not know they were there until search warrants were executed.
However, Morrison argued, the act of uploading the photos to the phone and to a Flickr account “takes affirmative action,” that the photos could not inadvertently show up like a website pop-up.