A Springfield man and woman pleaded guilty in federal court to engaging in a child exploitation enterprise that victimized at least three children.
According to a news release, Kevin Grant McMillan, 35, pleaded guilty on Monday to engaging in a child exploitation enterprise from Jan. 1, 2017, to Nov. 6, 2019.
With that guilty plea, McMillan admitted he engaged in a series of felony violations, including the sexual exploitation of a minor and receiving and distributing child pornography. Those felony violations, constituting three or more separate incidents and involving more than one minor victim, comprise a child exploitation enterprise, the release said.
Co-defendant Christine Marie Rossiter, 36, of Springfield, pleaded guilty on June 28, to the same charge.
According to the plea agreement, the federal investigation began in May 2019 when the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children notified law enforcement that McMillan had uploaded three files of child pornography through his Gmail account. The Springfield Police Department also was investigating McMillan in a separate case involving an 8-year-old victim, identified in court documents as Jane Doe 2. Springfield investigators identified additional Google accounts that contained child pornography, the release said.
On Nov. 6, 2019, law enforcement officers executed a search warrant at McMillan’s residence, where they contacted a second, 15-year-old victim, identified in court documents as Jane Doe 1, and a 17-year-old minor. Officers seized five laptops, two hard drives, an Apple iPad, a cell phone, and seven USB/micro SD cards.
A forensic analyst found images of child pornography depicting Jane Doe 1, Jane Doe 2, and a third victim, a toddler identified in court documents as Jane Doe 3. The release said there were more than 27,000 pornographic images and videos of subjects whose age is difficult to determine and child erotica. There was a total of 682 images and videos of bestiality pornography. There were 111 videos and images of child exploitive animated pornography located on the devices.
Investigators found additional child pornography in McMillan’s Dropbox account.
Investigators found SMS and MMS messaging between McMillan and Rossiter from Jan. 1, 2018, to April 2, 2019. During the messaging, they exchanged bestiality pornography, incest-related pornography, and bondage pornography. In a Facebook conversation between March 2019 and May 2019, they extensively discussed engaging in sexual contact with other individuals, including children. In April 2019, they discussed McMillan wanting to have sexual contact with a 13-year-old minor male, identified in court documents as John Doe.
The release said investigators also found conversations between McMillan and another co-defendant in which McMillan said he wanted to drug and sexually assault Jane Doe 1 (who was 13 years old at the time). The co-defendant said she would be interested in assisting him in drugging and raping children and adult women. McMillan also sent this co-defendant sexually explicit images of Jane Doe 1 and Jane Doe 3. Throughout the conversations they had with each other from January 2017 until April 2019, they exchanged incest-related pornography, bondage pornography, bestiality pornography, child pornography, and child erotica. They also had conversations about having sexual contact with children and about having children together and impregnating them.
Under federal statutes, McMillan and Rossiter each are subject to a mandatory minimum sentence of 20 years in federal prison without parole, up to a sentence of life in federal prison without parole.
