Delco man pleads no contest to child porn charges

The Delaware County man convicted in the 2006 murder of a young coworker returned to court yesterday to plead no contest to having child pornography on his home computer.

In November, William F. Smithson was sentenced to life in prison without parole after being convicted of the murder of Jason Shephard, an intern with the South Dakota scoreboard manufacturer Daktronics. The body of Shephard, 23, was found in Smithson's basement in Thornbury Township on Sept. 21, 2006. Prosecutors said Smithson had drugged the young man from Cavalier, N.D., then strangled him after Shephard fought off his sexual advances.

Police confiscated Smithson's computer, seeking evidence in the murder investigation. They found photo and movie files containing images of boys and girls younger than 18 engaged in various sexual acts.

Smithson was charged separately with sexual abuse of children.

G. Guy Smith, defense attorney, said a number of Smithson's friends had access to the computer and password, and had personal folders on the hard drive. The files containing the pornography were in a folder labeled "Dan," Smith said.

Assistant District Attorney Thomas F. Lawrie said that the images had been accessed 10 days before the murder and that Smithson was living alone at the time.

Smithson will be sentenced at another date, after being transferred to a state prison to begin his sentence in the murder case.