Kinney Jury in Deliberations

Prosecutor Timothy Campen called musician and private music instructor Mark Kinney a "pedophile" in his closing statements Tuesday at the El Cajon courthouse. Kinney, if convicted, faces 47 years to life in prison on 10 charges including performing lewd acts with children under 14, creating obscene material and possessing child pornography.

"The age range of 7 to 11—that's his preference," Campen said. "Frankly, he did a lot more than was charged but he most certainly did what was charged."

The case is based on allegations regarding behavior with three girls who were Kinney's music students. Campen said Kinney was sophisticated in his methods as he preyed on the girls during many outings together and time alone over seven years.

"These girls bared their soul to the best of their ability in an intensely stressful [trial]," Campen said.

He said that when the girls sometimes responded that they couldn't remember, that it likely meant that they didn't want to talk about it. He told jurors that if they [the jurors] believed the girls, then Kinney is guilty.

"But we have so much more than that," he said, as he recalled testimony of several of Kinney's relatives who said they had sometimes felt uncomfortable with what they felt might have been "inappropriate" behavior with girls. Law enforcement officers testified they analyzed Kinney's computer and found at least 129 images of child pornography. None of the pornography included images of the girls involved in the case.

A forensic computer specialist testified during the trial that the child pornography  and several movies showed that Kinney had downloaded pornographic content from the Internet by clicking on files with known terms used to identify such content. The San Diego Police detective further testified that Kinney's computer contained erasing software. Campen stated that Kinney had two weeks—"plenty of time," he said—to erase any images he'd created of the girls after their parents stopped allowing him contact with them. Campen said the defendant would have known something was wrong and could have begun getting rid of files.

"His techniques were sophisticated but not enough to get rid of the evidence," Campen said. Detective Angela Rozsa said she found a folder of thumbnails on Kinney's computer which would have been created from source files no longer on the computer.

The jury heard testimony that Kinney had created images of at least two of the girls using a video camera and photocopier. A parent testified to having seen one of the photocopies but said she destroyed it.

In closing arguments by the defense, counsel David Cohn said that the assertion that a person not remembering things means not wanting to talk about them is "ridiculous."

"First," Cohn told jurors, "you have to know if the touching even happened. Then you have to look at whether there was sexual intent."

Cohn pointed out inconsistencies in the girls' testimonies.

He reminded jurors not to look at the case using their sympathy or whether they were uncomfortable about pornography being found on Kinney's computer. He said just because Kinney had porn on his laptop doesn't mean that he had sexual intent "at the moment" that any touching may have occurred.

Being called a pedophile is a very serious thing, Cohn told jurors. Being a pedophile is "an illness," he said. "There's been no testimony here about what being a pedophile even means."

Kinney posted bail and continued to teach music to adults during the investigation, his attorney told Ramona Patch. He had previously taught throughout San Diego county, mostly in private homes. Kinney also taught out of a rented studio at Ramona Music Center for about two years.

The jury in Department 12 of the El Cajon courthouse received the case for deliberations shortly before 2 p.m. Tuesday.