HELENA – A federal appeals court says a Bigfork man, sentenced to seven years in prison on child pornography charges, was the victim of double jeopardy and one of his two criminal convictions must be vacated.
Jerry Brobst was sentenced in July 2007 to seven years in federal prison. Brobst, now 64, was convicted of both receipt and possession of child pornography.
A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Monday that the double conviction, arising from the same set of circumstances, violated the Double Jeopardy Clause of the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.
The appellate judges instructed the trial judge, Chief U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy of Missoula, to vacate either of the two convictions and to resentence Brobst accordingly.