A man accused of distributing sexually explicit images of two minors while living in Reston pleaded guilty yesterday (Tuesday) to exploiting children.
Now a South Carolina resident, Christopher George Schoenmann, 43, created child sexual abuse material and traded it to a Minnesota man in exchange for sexually explicit photos of his own children during a three-year period, federal prosecutors said.
Federal authorities began investigating Schoenmann after arresting the Minnesota man in 2022, when an audit of his cell phone uncovered chats between the two, according to an affidavit.
The two men regularly conversed via WhatsApp and Kik — two popular messaging platforms — starting in 2019, frequently discussing “their sexual interest in young girls” and exchanging child sexual abuse materials, court documents said.
“The chats showed that Schoenmann had access to two minor children, whom Schoenmann had photographed engaging in sexually explicit conduct,” the affidavit said.
Between July 2019 and July 2022, Schoenmann created at least 16 sexually explicit images of two victims: one aged less than a year to 2 years old, and another between 6 and 8 years old, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia.
“Schoenmann also stored on four different electronic devices more than 1,400 images and videos depicting children engaged in sexually explicit conduct, including approximately 39 images and videos depicting the sexual abuse of infants or toddlers,” federal prosecutors said.
Schoenmann was residing in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, by the time a search warrant was executed on his home in April 2023. It’s unclear when exactly Schoenmann relocated out of Fairfax County.
Schoenmann is scheduled to be sentenced in federal court on June 24. He faces a mandatory minimum of 15 years for the charges, with a maximum potential sentence of 30 years in prison.
