Press Release
KC Sex Offender Sentenced to 25 Years for Child Pornography
For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, Western District of Missouri
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – A Kansas City, Mo., man who is a registered sex offender was sentenced in federal court today on charges related to distributing child pornography.
Charles M. Witter, 33, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Greg Kays to 25 years in federal prison without parole. The court also sentenced Witter to spend the rest of his life on supervised release following incarceration.
On July 26, 2023, Witter pleaded guilty to one count of distributing child pornography over the internet on Oct. 5, 2020, one count of transporting child pornography over the internet from Nov. 12, 2020, to Jan. 11, 2021, and one count of possessing child pornography from Nov. 12, 2020, to March 16, 2021, all after having been convicted of an offense relating to aggravated sexual abuse involving a minor. Witter, a registered sex offender, has prior felony convictions for statutory rape and statutory sodomy involving his sexual abuse of a 12-year-old child victim.
On Feb. 25, 2020, Witter was released from custody after serving six years in state prison for those prior convictions. Less than eight months later, he used a social media application to send an image of child pornography to another person.
Witter admitted that he sent an image of child pornography through a social media application to another person on Oct. 5, 2020. The image was flagged and a CyberTip report sent to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which forwarded it to the Western Missouri Cyber Crimes Task Force.
Less than four months later, on Jan. 20, 2021, another online service provider submitted a CyberTip report to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children concerning a number of emails sent by Witter, which included 113 images of child pornography and child erotica from Nov. 12, 2020, to Jan. 11, 2021.
Investigators searched Witter’s cell phone and found 53 images of child pornography, three videos of child pornography, and 10 GIF files of child pornography.
This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Maureen A. Brackett and Kenneth W. Borgnino. It was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations and the Platte County, Mo., Sheriff’s Department.
Project Safe Childhood
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 Attorneys' 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.usdoj.gov/psc . For more information about Internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab "resources."
Updated November 17, 2023
Topic
Project Safe Childhood
Component