Elkton Man Pleads Guilty to Production of Child Pornography of Two Minor Females Entrusted in His Care

Baltimore, Maryland – Johnny William Kyte, Jr., age 62, of Elkton, Maryland, pleaded guilty yesterday to production of child pornography. 

The guilty plea was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Erek L. Barron; Special Agent in Charge James R. Mancuso of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Baltimore; the Cecil County State’s Attorney James Dellmyer; and Chief Carolyn Rogers of the Elkton Police Department.

According to his guilty plea, on September 10, 2020, the Elkton Police Department responded to a complaint reporting that images of child pornography had been located within Kyte’s residence.  Kyte resided at his Elkton, Maryland residence for over 20 years.  However, at the time that the complaint was reported, Kyte was not residing at his residence as he was serving a 36-month jail sentence for a third-degree sex offense at the Ceil County Detention Center.

After the execution of numerous search warrants, the Elkton Police Department and the Department of Homeland Security Investigations discovered several digital devices controlled and owned by Kyte that contained images of child pornography.  The devices included a 1 Terabyte USB external hard drive and a 128 Megabyte SD card. 

Evidence recovered from the devices revealed that from August 13, 2014 to July 4, 2017, Kyte produced sexually explicit images of two prepubescent females.  Kyte used a variety of devices to produce the images including at least two digital cameras, a cell phone camera, and other devices.  The child pornographic images depicted the genitalia of two prepubescent females and contained various identifying home items within Kyte’s residence in the background of the pictures.  The minors depicted in the images had been entrusted in his care at the time the images were produced. 

Kyte admitted that he employed, used, persuaded, induced, enticed, and coerced the two minor victims to participate in the sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing child pornography.  

Kyte faces a minimum sentence of 15 years in federal prison and a maximum sentence of 30 years in federal prison followed by up to lifetime of supervised release for production of child pornography.   U.S. District Judge Catherine C. Blake has scheduled sentencing for April 22, 2022 at 9:15 a.m.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse.  Led by the United States Attorney’s Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims.  For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.   For more information about Internet safety education, please visit www.justice.gov/psc and click on the "Resources" tab on the left of the page.         

United States Attorney Erek L. Barron commended the HSI, the Office of the State’s Attorney for Cecil County, and the Elkton Police Department for their work in the investigation.  Mr. Barron thanked Assistant U.S. Attorneys Christine Duey and Colleen McGuinn, who are prosecuting the case.

For more information on the Maryland U.S. Attorney’s Office, its priorities, and resources available to help the community, please visit www.justice.gov/usao-md/project-safe-childhood and https://www.justice.gov/usao-md/community-outreach.

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