Prosecutors say a Parker County man smashed his computer, destroying evidence in a disturbing criminal investigation. The incident was caught on video. The district attorney shared the video with NBC DFW and confirmed the man captured swinging a claw hammer at a computer is Joe Eddie Stephens.
"The defendant’s wife was out there in the garage with him. And she was capturing the entire thing on video telling him to quit doing it, you're destroying evidence, you're just making it worse. And he went on and did it anyway,” said Parker County DA Jeff Swain.
Swain says the video picks up after Stephens' relative confronted him after finding clues he may have accessed child porn. Police recovered the smashed computer and got a warrant to search Stephen’s cell phone, where they found several disturbing images, including a video of an elementary aged child changing clothes.
“I think he knew he needed to get rid of that evidence or he was going to be in big trouble,” said Swain.
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Investigators could not retrieve any files.
“When the defendant completely destroys the evidence, you actually don't know exactly what all charges they would have if you had all of that evidence," said Swain.
Despite the damage, they still used the computer against him.
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“He probably didn't realize that there's an offense called tampering with evidence,” said Swain. “Basically, this is a box of broken computer bits that we offered the jury.”
Swain says it took 15 minutes for the jury to find Stephens guilty on Wednesday. They sentenced him to 12 years in prison for promoting child porn, for the video. He received the maximum sentence of 10 years for tampering with evidence and making it impossible to see what may have been on his computer.
“I have never actually seen a defendant on video talking about destroying evidence and then smashing it with a hammer 24 times,” said Swain. “He could destroy the evidence but he's still accountable and now he's going to prison.”
Stephens will be eligible for parole in three years, prosecutors believe he is a safety risk to the community and hope he serves most of his sentence.
