AUGUSTA — A jury on Thursday convicted Randy R. Marquis, of Augusta, of intentionally possessing child pornography — specifically two separate images and one video — on his computer in Jan. 16, 2015, at his Northern Avenue home.

His trial on the three charges of possession of sexually explicit materials of children under 12 began Wednesday at the Capital Judicial Center in Augusta.

Jurors deliberated almost four hours Thursday afternoon before returning the verdict about 6:45 p.m. Justice Harold Stewart said a sentencing hearing probably would be held in April, and Marquis remains free on post-conviction bail.

Marquis was arrested in January 2015 at his home and indicted the following May. He had been free on bail before the trial as well.

Marquis, 43, did not testify at the trial, so what jurors heard from him was only what he told a detective in a recorded interview.

After the verdict, the defense requested the jurors be polled individually about their decision. The 11 men and one woman on the jury each said “guilty” three times in response to the clerk’s inquiry.

The only two witnesses to testify at the trial, Dawn Ego, a forensic analyst with the Maine Computer Crimes Unit, and Maine State Police Detective Justin Kittredge, were called by the prosecutor, Assistant District Attorney Frayla Tarpinian.

In her closing argument, Tarpinian said Marquis, under the user name “BIG DADDY,” used a peer-to-peer file sharing program and deliberately searched for such terms as “family sex” and “moms and sons having sex” and downloaded those images.

“They were selected and moved from internet to his computer,” she said.

Kittredge testified Thursday that downloading the files required an active user and wouldn’t be automatic.

Tarpinian said all three of the items depicted children — who, Ego testified, were in the 6-to-10 age group — engaged in sexually explicit conduct. Jurors saw the images and the video Wednesday.

Scott Hess, the defense attorney representing Marquis, told jurors the state failed to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt and that it should have looked further into Marquis’s explanation about having computer problems. He asked jurors to look beyond the “difficult images.”

“There were images he had downloaded that he wasn’t aware of,” Hess said. Hess also said there was no evidence to indicate the files had been opened.

“When the detective ran the search program and these things popped up, he was surprised,” Hess said. “He was genuinely surprised.”

Hess said Marquis routinely downloaded large batches of files and then went back and deleted those that were not appropriate.

“There’s no evidence Mr. Marquis clicked on these files and viewed them,” he said. “They’re sitting in a file on the desktop.”

Betty Adams — 621-5631

badams@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @betadams