Eastern Washington Man Sentenced For Disgusting Crime

The are a staggering number of people in prison in Washington State for sex crimes.  Just over 3,300 inmates, or roughly 24% of the entire prison system population, were convicted of some type of sex crime.

The federal prison system doesn't break data down the same way, so the total number of inmates that committed sex crimes in the only federal prison Washington State is unknown.  That said, we do know of one person heading to federal prison for a disgusting crime that falls under that category.

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Pete Serrano, the U.S. Attorney for Eastern Washington, announced that a Selah man will be going away for some time after he was sentenced for possession of child porn.  61 year-old Kevin Lee Towner will spend the next five years of his life thinking about why he had over 3,000 images of children committing sex acts on his computer.

In October of 2020, a search warrant was executed at Towner's home.  That was when FBI agents found the electronic media storage device packed with the thousands of photos of children engaged in "sexually explicit conduct".  Towner confessed to getting the photos through peer-to-peer file sharing.

During sentencing, United States District Judge Rebecca Pennell also imposed:

• Tten years of supervised release
• $45,000 in restitution to victims depicted in the photos Towner had
• Pay $17,000 to the Amy, Vicky, and Andy Child Pornography Victim Assistance Act of 2018
• a special penalty assessment of $5,000 pursuant to the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act of 2015

U.S. Attorney Pete Serrano had this to say after the sentence was handed down

This sentence sends a powerful reminder to Mr. Towner and others like him: Crimes that exploit children cannot, and will not be tolerated.  Thanks to the dedicated work of the FBI and prosecutors from my office, we were able to hold Mr. Towner accountable and protect the most vulnerable among us.”

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood which was launched in 2006.  The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Michael D. Murphy.