WA man headed to prison for 13 years for possessing child sexual abuse material
Aug 12, 2025, 5:15 PM
The Seattle courthouse. (Photo courtesy of the U.S. District Court Western District of Washington)
(Photo courtesy of the U.S. District Court Western District of Washington)
A Deming, Washington, man has been sentenced to more than 13 years in federal prison for receiving and possessing child sexual abuse material.
Robert J. Howell Jr., 47, was convicted in April and sentenced Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Seattle. He was ordered to serve 160 months in prison and 20 years of supervised release.
Judge John C. Coughenour said Howell Jr. “poses a danger to the community and has a complete lack of contrition.”
Howell was also ordered to pay $141,000 in restitution to 47 victims.
“At trial, prosecutors proved that between 2016 and 2019, Howell Jr. received five specific files of child sexual abuse material and knowingly possessed many more,” a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office stated. “In all, more than 75 electronic assets, including computers, phones, tablets, hard drives, storage devices, gaming devices, and CDs, were seized by law enforcement and have been forfeited to the government.”
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Agents find more than 90K files of child sex abuse
Federal agents found more than 90,000 files at Howell’s home in Deming.
“Howell Jr. came to the attention of law enforcement in late 2019 when a foreign country’s police organization alerted Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) that an IP address associated with Howell Jr.’s residence had accessed a website devoted to child sexual abuse material,” the release stated.
Frank Lenzi is the News Director for KIRO Newsradio. Read more of his stories here.
