North Carolina Man Sentenced for Child Pornography

Jacob Elijah Kilgore, a 29-year-old from Boone, North Carolina, was sentenced to eight years in prison for transporting child pornography via the dark web. His sentencing on December 5, 2023, follows an investigation that uncovered over 150 videos and images depicting the sexual abuse of children, including infants and toddlers. Law enforcement executed a search warrant at Kilgore's residence in February 2023, seizing a homemade laptop with 11 hard drives containing more than 66 hours of video files and approximately 55 gigabytes of images. Kilgore admitted to downloading and sharing this material through peer-to-peer networks. Upon completing his prison term, he will be subject to lifetime supervised release and must register as a sex offender. The case was part of Project Safe Childhood, highlighting ongoing efforts to combat child exploitation.