Idaho Falls man indicted by grand jury for child porn

The case of an Idaho Falls man who was charged with 10 felony counts of child porn in district court has been dismissed but now he has been indicted by a federal grand jury.

Chase Hornaday has now been charged with one felony count of distributing child pornography and one felony count of possession of child pornography. If found guilty, he faces up to 40 years in prison.

A motion to dismiss the case in Bonneville County was filed on May 20 and was dismissed on May 21. The federal grand jury indictment was filed on April 24.

The grand jury indictment states that his phone was taken because it was used “to commit or to promote the commission of the foregoing offense.”

According to the affidavit of his arrest on Jan. 10, authorities conducted a traffic stop to obtain a search warrant for his vehicle. Another search warrant was obtained for his home, where detectives seized 13 items.

A search of his main phone revealed a folder containing 300 images of child porn.

What sparked the investigation of Hornaday was a cybertip being submitted on Nov. 27 of child sexual abuse materials being uploaded to the social media platform Kik. The cybertip contained nine different videos of child porn.

The tip included an email and an internet protocol address that was used to locate a physical address in Ammon and a phone number that belonged to Hornaday.

A search warrant was obtained for his Kik account on Dec. 12, which revealed 60 images and videos of child porn. The search also showed group chats that involved Hornaday talking with other users about child porn and sharing the images and videos.

A jury trial has been scheduled for Hornaday at 1:30 p.m. Sept. 9 with Senior U.S. District Court Judge B. Lynn Winmill.