Essex Sex Offender Sentenced to Over 12 Years in Federal Prison for Transportation of Child Pornography

Baltimore, Maryland –U.S. District Judge Richard D. Bennett today sentenced Raymond Kilchenstein, age 53, formerly of Essex, Maryland, to 150 months in prison, followed by 20 years of supervised release, for transportation of child pornography.  Judge Bennett ordered that, upon his release from prison, Kilchenstein must continue to register as a sex offender in the places where he resides, where he is an employee, and where he is a student, under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA).

The sentence was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Robert K. Hur; Special Agent in Charge Gordon B. Johnson of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Baltimore Field Office; and Interim Commissioner Gary Tuggle of the Baltimore Police Department.

According to the his plea agreement, in 1997, while Kilchenstein was serving in the U.S. Air Force, he pleaded guilty to repeatedly sexually abusing a minor female for four years, beginning when the child was four years old.  He also acknowledged fondling a second minor female, who was 10 years old at the time of the abuse.  Kilchenstein was sentenced to 10 years of confinement and dishonorably discharged from the Air Force.  He was released on May 2, 2003 and has been a registered sex offender since that time.

Kilchenstein admitted that beginning in 2015, he traded child pornography in three ways:  by using a foreign website that facilitates sharing images and videos; through several e-mail addresses; and by utilizing an instant-messaging application for mobile devices that allows users to share photos, videos, and other content.  A search warrant executed at Kilchenstein’s home on February 10, 2017, recovered digital storage media, including three thumb drives, a laptop, and a hard drive.  Subsequent forensic analysis of the media recovered over 20,000 images and 665 videos of child pornography, including over 275 identified child pornography series.  Kilchenstein has been ordered to pay $13,000 in restitution to the identified victims in those series.  The images and videos also included prepubescent minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct, as well as sadistic, masochistic, and other depictions of violence.

Kilchenstein was arrested on December 15, 2017, and an Apple iPhone 7 was seized, but was locked, preventing forensic analysis.  As part of his plea agreement, Kilchenstein provided the password to allow access to his iPhone in order to allow a full forensic analysis of the phone to determine whether there was any evidence of production of child pornography.  None was found.

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 Robert K. Hur commended the FBI and Baltimore Police Department for their work in the investigation.  Mr. Hur thanked Assistant U.S. Attorney Judson T. Mihok, who is prosecuting the federal case.