KNOXVILLE, Tenn., June 17 (UPI) -- A Tennessee man convicted on a charge related to hacking former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's e-mail account will be sentenced in September, court records show.
A Sept. 24 sentencing hearing was set Wednesday for David C. Kernell, a former University of Tennessee student, who was convicted in April of trying to clear his computer of incriminating evidence after he broke into Palin's account.
Kernell faces a jail sentence of 15 months to 21 months, the newspaper said.
Defense attorney Wade Davies tried unsuccessfully at the hearing to convince the judge to dismiss the obstruction conviction, arguing the FBI wasn't yet on Kernell's trail when he got rid of screen shots of Palin's e-mail from his computer, removed the Web browser he used to get into the account, and ran a program to allow space on his hard drive by overwriting deleted files.
"The alleged deletions on Mr. Kernell's laptop computer occurred before he had knowledge of an investigation. … Once he was contacted by the FBI, we know he preserved the computer and put it on his desk and waited for (agents) to come get it," Davies said.
Evidence at Kernell's trial showed he guessed the answer to Palin's password security account based on information from Google and Wikipedia, changed her password, accessed the account and then bragged about it on an Internet discussion board, the News Sentinel reported.
