A federal judge has denied a request by William W. “Billy” Hooper of Mathews that his convictions for child pornography and coercion and enticement be set aside.

Hooper was found guilty of the charges by a jury in September in the U.S. District Court of the Eastern District of Virginia.

In asking the court to set aside the verdict, Hooper claimed that convicting him of counts three and four of which he was found guilty would violate the multiple punishment act of the Double Jeopardy Clause of the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution.

He also claimed that the evidence of his guilt was circumstantial and insufficient, and that neither of the witnesses who testified that he had sent the text messages and emails at issue in the trial “had given a believable version of events.”

In his Dec. 30 opinion denying the motion, U.S. District Judge David J. Novak found that there were factual differences in counts three and four of the indictment, and that the Double Jeopardy Clause did not bar Hooper’s conviction for both counts.

Novak also found not only that “overwhelming evidence established the defendant’s guilt,” but that the court “cannot override the jury’s credibility determinations.”

“It is the jury’s province to weigh the credibility of witnesses, and to resolve any conflicts in the evidence,” he said, quoting from a prior case.

“After hearing defendant’s testimony, the jury could have believed his version of the events,” said Novak. “The jury chose to accept the government’s facts and convict the defendant.”

Previously scheduled for February and subsequently moved to March, Hooper’s sentencing hearing has now been rescheduled for 11 a.m. on May 3 in the U.S. Eastern District Court in Richmond.