The Inter-Mountain photo by Taylor McKinney Dakota Kelley is shown leaving his preliminary hearing in Randolph County Magistrate Court this week.

ELKINS — Probable cause was found in the case of a Randolph County man accused of possessing material depicting minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct, which will now go before a grand jury.

Dakota Davis Kelley, 32, is charged with one count of possession of material depicting minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct, a felony. Kelley is currently being held at the Tygart Valley Regional Jail on a $50,000 cash-only bond.

This week, Magistrate Benjamin Shepler found probable cause against Kelley during a preliminary hearing in Randolph County Magistrate Court. Kelley was represented by attorney James Hawkins, and the state was represented by Assistant Prosecutor Leckta Poling.

At the hearing’s start, Hawkins asked the court to “significantly” lower and modify Kelley’s $50,000 cash-only bond as he was unable to post it. Hawkins stated that Kelley had been cooperative with the police throughout the investigation.

Poling, in rebuttal, said that the state was against any modification of the bond as police had found the equivalent of 300 images of explicit content involving minors on Kelley’s phone. She also asked the court to add conditions to Kelley’s bond, such as electronic monitoring and restriction from using devices that connect to the internet.

After finding probable cause, Shepler denied the defense’s motion to modify bond and accepted the state’s motion for additional conditions.

During the hearing, Poling called Trooper First Class Caleb Harper with the Elkins Detachment of the West Virginia State Police to testify before the court. Harper was the investigating and arresting officer in the case.

Harper, a member of the State Police’s Crimes Against Children Unit, told the court that in April, they received a cyber tip from Google regarding an account they flagged for possible child pornography. Google provided them with a “very substantial” IP log, as well as information about the account, including the two Gmails attached to it, the birthday listed on the account and the type of technology that account was accessed from. Google also provided two images from the account that they had flagged as child pornography. Harper explained that, even though Google only flagged two images, it was always plausible that more than two pornographic images of minors were on the account.

A username with the account was tied to a previous cyber tip police had received in 2024, Harper told the court; however, no progress was made on that tip as the location of the attached IP address was “unreliable.” Earlier, Harper had told the court of another previous cyber tip they had received from Instagram in 2023 regarding an account that spoke to others about “trading” child pornography, stating that they “had plenty.” An investigation found that the IP address tied to the Instagram account was connected to an email of a relation of Kelley, but, again, the location of the IP address was not entirely reliable.

During the 2026 investigation into Google’s cyber tip, Harper said that they were able to connect Kelley to the email. After subpoenaing Frontier Communications, police were able to the related IP address to an in-law of Kelley’s that he was staying with at the time. Harper told the court that they obtained three search warrants for Kelley’s devices and residence, and when they went to the home, Kelley spoke with Harper in Harper’s vehicle. When Harper asked if he could look at Kelley’s phone, Kelley obliged.

Harper told the court that, on Kelley’s phone, he observed “numerous videos” that depicted prepubescent minors engaged in sexually explicit activity. Harper stated that the length of at least three of the videos he saw equaled approximately 300 images under West Virginia state law. According to the West Virginia Code regarding minors depicted in sexually explicit content, “each video clip, movie or similar recording of five minutes or less shall constitute 100 images. A video clip, movie or similar recording of a duration longer than five minutes constitutes 100 images for every two minutes in length it exceeds five minutes.” After the search of the home and devices was complete, Kelley was arrested.

Harper stated that, just that morning, he had received word that a forensic download of Kelley’s devices had been completed and were ready for review.

In cross examination, Hawkins asked Harper who pays the bills on Kelley’s phone, to which Harper said he did not know. Hawkins also asked questions regarding who could have had access to Kelley’s phone at any point. Harper stated that, during their conversation in his vehicle, Kelley had told Harper that “no one” had access to the phone except for him. Harper added that Kelley had admitted to finding child pornography on the internet, but denied ever downloading it.

Hawkins asked if Harper knew when the content was downloaded onto Kelley’s phone. Harper said that some of the content was “particularly old,” but some were downloaded within the last seven days and even the day before the police’s search.

During follow-up questioning, Poling asked Harper if any of the children depicted in the content were related to, close with or under the care of Kelley. Harper said no.

In closing arguments, Poling said Harper’s testimony proved that probable cause should be found. Hawkins argued that the court should not find probable cause against Kelley as there were only three videos as of right now and there was no real way of knowing who could have access to Kelley’s phone.