A Deming, Washington man has been sentenced to 160 months in federal prison for crimes involving child sexual abuse material. Robert J. Howell Jr., 47, was convicted in April 2025 following a two-day jury trial in U.S. District Court in Seattle. The case came to light after a foreign law enforcement agency notified Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) that an IP address linked to Howell’s residence had accessed a website containing child sexual abuse content.
Judge John C. Coughenour handed down the sentence, citing the large quantity and violent nature of the material as factors in his decision. Judge Coughenour stated that Howell Jr. “poses a danger to the community and has a complete lack of contrition.” In addition to the prison term, Howell Jr. will serve twenty years of supervised release.
Law enforcement began investigating after receiving the international tip and traced the IP address back to Howell’s home in Deming, Whatcom County. On September 15, 2020, federal agents executed a search warrant at his residence and seized several dozen electronic devices. A forensic review found more than 90,000 files depicting child sexual abuse on 21 devices, with many images showing very young children subjected to extreme violence.
Prosecutors demonstrated at trial that between 2016 and 2019, Howell Jr. received five specific files of child sexual abuse material and knowingly possessed many more such files.
Authorities confiscated over 75 electronic assets from Howell’s home—including computers, phones, tablets, hard drives, storage devices, gaming devices, and CDs—which have now been forfeited to the government.
The investigation was conducted by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). Assistant United States Attorney Matthew Hampton and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Jessica M. Ly prosecuted the case.
This prosecution is part of Project Safe Childhood—a national initiative started by the Department of Justice in May 2006 aimed at fighting child exploitation online by coordinating efforts among federal, state, and local agencies to identify offenders and rescue victims. More information about Project Safe Childhood can be found at www.justice.gov/psc.
