Washington D.C. man Matthew Stitt-Johnson, 31, has pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual exploitation of a minor and one count of second-degree child sexual abuse with aggravating circumstances for abusing three minor children.
The announcement was made by U.S. Attorney Matthew M. Graves, Wayne A. Jacobs, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Washington Field Office Criminal Division, and Robert J. Contee III, Chief of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD).
Stitt-Johnson pleaded guilty in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The Honorable Jia M. Cobb scheduled sentencing for Jan. 25, 2023. Stitt-Johnson faces a minimum sentence of 15 years in prison and a maximum sentence of 68 ½ years.
According to the government’s evidence, Stitt-Johnson sexually abused three children, an eight-year-old, a five-year-old, and an eight-month-old infant, between 2015 and 2020. Stitt-Johnson took videos of his sexual abuse of the five-year-old child and the eight-month-old infant. While the five-year-old and her sister reported the abuse to their mother, the abuse was not reported to law enforcement agencies. In 2021, law enforcement officers received a tip that Stitt-Johnson downloaded child pornography from a cloud-based service and subsequently executed a search warrant on his home, recovering two cell phones belonging to Stitt-Johnson.
Videos depicting the sexual abuse of the five-year-old victim and eight-month-old victim were discovered in his cell phones, along with 13,000 images of child pornography. Stitt-Johnson distributed the images of his sexual abuse of children in Internet forums dedicated to trading child pornography, particularly trading images of the rape and torture of infants and toddlers, and actively sought out and distributed other child pornography images over a two-year period.
Stitt-Johnson was arrested on Dec. 17, 2021. He has been in custody since. The case was investigated by the FBI Washington Field Office’s Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force.
This case was brought as part of the Project Safe Childhood initiative. In February 2006, the Attorney General created Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative designed to protect children from online exploitation and abuse. Led by the U.S. Attorney’s Offices, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as identify and rescue victims.
Defendant: Matthew Stitt-Johnson, 31, of Washington, D.C.
Criminal Charges: Two counts of sexual exploitation of a minor and one count of second-degree child sexual abuse with aggravating circumstances.
City and State: Washington, D.C.
Date: 2021 (arrest on Dec. 17, 2021) and sentencing on Jan. 25, 2023.
Sentence: Faces a minimum sentence of 15 years in prison and a maximum sentence of 68 ½ years.
Related Federal Cases
- Glenn Matthews, Child Exploitation, Washington District of Columbia 2021 · District of Columbia
- Kirkland Shipley, Sex Abuse and Child Exploitation, Washington District of Columbia 2022 · Idaho
- Jonathan Willis, Online Child Exploitation, Maryland 2023 · District of Columbia
- Man Whose Name is Withheld, Child Sexual Exploitation, D.C. 2023 · District of Columbia
- Michael Johnson, Child Sex Assault, D.C. 2023 · District of Columbia
Key Facts
- State: Washington DC
- Category: Sex Crimes
- Source: DOJ Press Release â†â€â€
ðŸâ€Â’ Get the grimiest stories delivered weekly. Subscribe free →
MORE FEDERAL CRIME NEWS
Sex CrimesSex CrimesSex CrimesSex Crimes