Rapid City Man Receives 20 Years for Online Child Enticement and Pornography

A Rapid City, South Dakota man convicted of Attempted Enticement of a Minor Using the Internet and Receipt of Child Pornography was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison on June 1, 2026.

U.S. District Judge Camela C. Theeler imposed the term in the U.S. District Court for the District of South Dakota, the Department of Justice announced on June 3. The defendant, identified in the release only by his Rapid City residence, must serve the full sentence with no parole.

He faces lifetime supervised release afterward that will bar him from possessing any internet-capable device without probation-officer approval and from any unsupervised contact with minors.

The case produced one count of attempted enticement of a minor using the internet and one count of receipt of child pornography. Federal sentencing guidelines required the court to account for both the online solicitation aimed at a minor and the volume and nature of the child-sexual-abuse material the defendant received.

The 20-year prison term shifts the defendant from pretrial status to immediate Bureau of Prisons custody. Upon release he enters the federal sex-offender registry, triggering lifelong reporting obligations and geographic restrictions that affect where he can live, work, and travel.

The supervised-release conditions also require participation in a sex-offender treatment program and submission to warrantless searches of any electronic devices.

This sentencing is the latest federal conviction obtained by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of South Dakota targeting online child sexual exploitation. The Department of Justice has pursued similar internet-based enticement and child-pornography cases across multiple states in the past 24 months, each resulting in multi-decade sentences and lifetime supervision once defendants complete their prison terms.

Primary sources: U.S. Department of Justice