Virginia Man Sentenced to 90 Months of Incarceration and 600 Months of Supervised Release for Transportation of Child Pornography

WASHINGTON—Kevin Noblette, 24, of Luray, Virginia, was sentenced on August 20, 2009, before the Honorable Colleen Kollar-Kotelly of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to a period of 90 months of incarceration following his earlier guilty plea on March 19, 2009, to one count of Transportation of Child Pornography, announced Acting U.S. Attorney Channing D. Phillips, Joseph Persichini, Jr., Assistant Director in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) Washington Field Office, and Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) Chief Cathy L. Lanier. Judge Kollar-Kotelly also ordered that Noblette be placed on supervised release for 600 months upon completion of his prison sentence. Noblette’s supervision will include numerous limitations and requirements, including registration as a sex offender, and limitations on access to and contact with minors, computers, and the Internet.

According to the Statement of Offense filed with the court by the government, on December 13, 2006, a detective with the Metropolitan Police Department was working in an undercover capacity in the District of Columbia and posing as an adult pedophile. On that date, the detective monitored a known picture chat room, Free6, where pedophiles have been known to hang out, seek children for sex, and trade child pornography. An individual using the screen name “lzyprt” posted a message that stated “any parents from USA have a 5-12yo daughter I could have sex with in exchange for money?” That same day, the detective, using a covert screen name, responded to that posted message and stated that he has a 10-year-old that he has been active with and her mother is a cocaine user. The individual using the screen name “lzyprt” responded by stating “nice . . . . do u think u could hook me up.” The detective responded yes and provided his MSN contact information.

During the period December 13, 2006 through April 5, 2007, the detective had several on-line conversations with the individual who used the e-mail address “lzyprt2l@hotmail.com” and the screen name “Bob.” During these conversations, that individual and the detective discussed an interest in having sex with children and arrangements for “Bob” to engage in sex with a fictitious 10-year-old girl in exchange for money. During the initial conversation, “Bob,” later identified as the defendant Kevin Noblette, stated that his name was “Kevin” and that he was 22 years old. In later conversations with the detective during this period, the defendant indicated that he was a college student.

On November 1, 2007, the detective again was working in an undercover capacity in the District of Columbia and posing as an adult pedophile. The detective posted a message in the public access forum on a known child pornography site named Kido Network. The message stated that the detective was “active” and looking for anyone was also “active” and asked that anyone who wanted to chat to contact the covert screen name used by the detective on Yahoo! instant messaging. Based upon the detective’s experience in posing as a pedophile, he knew that “active” was understood to mean sexually active with children.

After posting the message, on the same day, the detective was contacted via instant messaging by an individual who utilized the e-mail address “lzyprt1@yahoo.com” and the screen name “Tim Snyder,” who initiated a conversation by instant messaging. During conversations between the detective and this individual, the individual described himself as a 23- year-old male college student who was attending Radford University in the Fall of 2007 and Spring of 2008, and graduated in May 2008. The individual, later identified as the defendant, said he was from Southwest Virginia but his family lives close to Northern Virginia. He sent by photo share a photograph of himself wearing a Radford University shirt.

In online conversations between the detective and the defendant during the period November 1, 2007 through May 6, 2008, he forwarded to the detective in the District of Columbia, the following images of child pornography: (1) a prepubescent child lying on a bed nude with her legs spread open exposing her vagina; (2) a prepubescent child lying on a bed being digitally penetrated by an adult male finger; and (3) a prepubescent female nude on all fours exposing her anus and vagina next to an adult female in the same position wearing panties. In the online conversations during this same time period, the defendant acknowledged that he had chatted with the detective on-line previously using the screen name “Bob.” The defendant also stated that he has an extensive collection of child pornography in the form of movies and DVDs. Subsequent investigation determined that the defendant was living in Radford, Virginia.

On July 2, 2008, the defendant was arrested in Radford, Virginia, pursuant to a warrant for his arrest that was issued by U.S. District Magistrate Judge Deborah Robinson on June 30, 2008. On July 2, 2008, a U.S. District Court Magistrate Judge for the Western District of Virginia, Roanoke Division, issued a search warrant authorizing the search of the defendant’s residence. The warrant was executed by Metropolitan Police Department Detectives and Special Agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Among the items recovered during the search of the defendant’s home was one silver computer with no serial number containing two hard drives and 15 DVDs. A forensic analysis of that computer and the DVDs was conducted by a Criminal Investigator with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia. On the computer and DVDs were approximately 2500 images and 770 videos/movies of child pornography, as defined in 18 United States Code, Section 2256. Also on the computer were the three images of child pornography that the defendant had sent to the detective. The images located on the defendant’s computer were taken to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) and have been compared with NCMEC’s Child Recognition & Identification System (CRIS).

In announcing the guilty plea, Acting U.S. Attorney Phillips, FBI Assistant Director in Charge Persichini, Jr., and MPD Chief Lanier commended the outstanding investigative work of Metropolitan Police Detective Timothy Palchak and the FBI Special Agent assigned to the case, who are members of the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, and Criminal Investigator John Marsh of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for his forensic analysis. They also praised the work of Assistant U.S. Attorney Karla-Dee Clark, who investigated and prosecuted the case.

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