Southern Utah man pleads guilty of possessing ‘thousands’ of child porn images in federal court

Composite image with background photo taken in March, 2020 by Cody Blowers; overlay booking photo of John Krampf taken in Washington County, Utah, Sept. 17, 2020 | Photo courtesy of the Washington County Sheriff's Office, St. George News

ST. GEORGE — The case of a Kane County man indicted in federal court on possession and receipt of child pornography will not go to trial after he entered a guilty plea to the second charge during a hearing held Monday in U.S. District Court.

In this 2020 booking photo John Robert Krampf, 64, of Kane County, was booked into jail in Washington County, Utah, Sept. 17, 2020 | File photo courtesy of the Washington County Sheriff’s Office, St. George News

During a hearing held before Magistrate Judge Paul Kohler in federal court, 65-year-old John Robert Krampf pleaded guilty to one count of receipt of child pornography. Under the terms of the plea agreement, the government agreed to dismiss one count of possession of child pornography in exchange for a guilty plea.

The charges stem from an investigation that was initiated following a three-day sting operation conducted at the end of August that was set in motion when authorities were alerted to an ad on Craigslist in which an individual posted a message implying that time could be spent with a child and asking those interested to respond via email, according to court document filed in support of the arrest.

The defendant was indicted in federal court following his arrest Sept. 17 after a search of Krampf’s Kane County residence where authorities recovered more than 20 hard drives, including a 4-terabyte hard drive that contained thousands of inappropriate images and videos of children, some of which were as young as 4 years old. Detectives also found that Krampf “used a sophisticated software program to locate sexually explicit images of children” that were then transferred over the internet.

During Monday’s hearing, Krampf was represented by Chris Salcido, of Sandy, who was hired by the defendant to represent him in the case. Representing the government was federal prosecutor Karin Fogtik with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in St. George.

As part of his plea, Krampf admitted to possessing thousands of images of pre-pubescent children and toddlers being sexually abused and engaged in sexually explicit conduct that were exchanged over the internet and across state lines during Monday’s proceedings.

Both sides agreed to a stipulated sentence of 48 months in federal prison under the terms of the settlement agreement and he will also be eligible to get credit for time served, Fogtik said, once the terms are approved by the court during sentencing.

That task will fall on the shoulders of District Judge David Nuffer who will preside over Krampf’s sentencing hearing, scheduled to take place in U.S. District Court in St. George on June 23 at 10 a.m., to allow enough time for a psychosexual evaluation to be completed, which was ordered during the plea hearing.

Moreover, Kohler requested that a presentence investigation be conducted, which generates a report used by the court to fashion an appropriate and fair sentence and is also used by parole officers later assigned to supervise the offender.

Krampf, who has been in custody since his arrest Sept. 17, 2020, will remain in the custody of the U.S. Marshal’s Office — a decision made at the time of his arrest, which was based upon several factors, including the length of the potential sentence and the fact that the crimes he is accused of involve children.

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2021, all rights reserved.

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