A 22-year-old Snohomish County man was sentenced today to 100 months in prison for distribution of child pornography, announced U.S. Attorney Jenny A. Durkan.  BLAYNE T. HULBERT, of Monroe, has already been sentenced to 67 months in state prison for molesting a young relative.  The federal investigation began separately from the state case when HULBERT was identified trading child pornography on a website hosted in Russia.  Under the terms of the plea agreement, HULBERT will begin serving his federal sentence at the conclusion of his state sentence.  U.S. District Judge John C. Coughenour agreed to the joint sentencing recommendation, and included a lifetime term of supervised release and the requirement that HULBERT register as a sex offender.

            According to records filed in the case, agents with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) identified an email account under the name of “kiddgrimm” that was offering to trade child pornography via a website hosted in Russia.  The email address was traced to one physical address in Monroe, Washington.  When they went to serve a search warrant in November 2011, investigators learned that a resident’s name and address had been used without his permission to set up the email account.  Further investigation led investigators to HULBERT’s residence and a location in Bellevue where HULBERT stored his laptop and other devices containing child pornography.  When he was arrested on November 8, 2011, HULBERT informed agents that he was already under investigation for molesting a young relative.  In May 2012, HULBERT pleaded guilty to the federal charge. In August 2012, HULBERT was sentenced to 67 months in state prison for child molestation.  Under the terms of the plea agreement, his federal sentence begins when the state sentence has been completed, meaning HULBERT is sentenced to more than 13 years in prison.

            In asking for the lengthy sentence, prosecutors noted that HULBERT had thousands of pictures of graphic and disturbing violence against children on his computer and storage devices. “Hulbert’s actions contributed to the demand for these horrific images of abuse.  Every participant in the chain--producer, distributor, consumer--sustains the market for these images, and each victim, whether identified or not, suffers not only when an image of him or her is created, but each and every time an image of him or her is viewed and traded.  It is these harms that warrant a lengthy sentence, to reflect the seriousness of the crime, to sufficiently punish Hulbert for his conduct in victimizing these children, to deter him and others like him from continuing to victimize children, and to protect the public from Hulbert,” prosecutors wrote in their sentencing memo

The case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).  The case was prosecuted by Special Assistant United States Attorney Marci Ellsworth.  Ms. Ellsworth is an attorney with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) specially designated to prosecute HSI cases in federal court.

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