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Local man sentenced to more than 19 years in prison for searching for obscene photos of minors

Posted at 6:39 PM, Aug 23, 2018
and last updated 2018-08-23 18:39:54-04

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. – A local man who has a history of sexual offenses involving minors was sentenced Thursday to more than 19 years in prison for the attempted receipt of obscene images depicting the sexual abuse of children, obstruction of justice, destruction of evidence and penalties for a registered sex offender.

Elmer E. Eychaner

46-year-old Elmer E. Eychaner, III was convicted at trial by a federal jury on May 18. Court documents and evidence presented at trial say Eychaner was previously convicted in federal court of child pornography crimes in 2008.

On June 13, 2016, Eychaner began a period of federal supervision and was prohibited from having a computer. However, he requested a computer so he could look for a better job, and the probation office allowed him to have one that was monitored through a third-party company, RemoteCOM.

Records say on November 17, 2016, Eychaner went onto his government-monitored computer and searched for obscene cartoon images depicting the sexual abuse of minors. He used Cortana, a Windows-based voice recognition software, to try to evade the computer-monitoring software.

After Eychaner was finished searching for the obscene images, he deleted his search history, according to court documents. The next day, he called his federal probation officer and confessed.

When his probation officer told him she was coming to take his computer, Eychaner admitted he removed its hard drive and had thrown it down a storm drain.

In addition to the federal child pornography conviction in 2008, Eychaner was also previously convicted of promoting obscenity to minors in North Dakota in August 1992 and gross sexual imposition in North Dakota in May 1994.