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BALTIMORE, MD - A federal judge sentenced an Elkins man to more than two decades in prison for child sex abuse crimes, officials said.
U.S. District Judge Julie R. Rubin sentenced Donald Robert Wilt Edwards, Sr., 30, of Elkins, to 25 years in prison, followed by lifetime supervised release, for sexually exploiting a minor, the United States Attorney’s Office of Maryland announced in a press release Wednesday.
According to the press release, U.S Attorney for the District of Maryland Kelly O. Hayes announced the sentence with Special Agent in Charge Jimmy Paul of the FBI Baltimore Field Office, Commissioner Richard Worley of the Baltimore Police Department (BPD) and Colonel Jack Chambers, Superintendent of the West Virginia State Police.
According to court documents, in June 2024, Edwards captured himself sexually abusing and exploiting a three-year-old minor victim, the release state. Edwards produced two images and one video of the abuse and distributed the files online using the Kik messaging application. He also possessed other child sexual abuse material (CSAM) on his cell phone and within his social media accounts.
In December 2024, investigators executed a search warrant at Edwards' Elkins residence, seizing multiple electronic devices, the release states. Throughout the course of the investigation, law enforcement uncovered additional CSAM on Edwards' devices and in his social media accounts.
U.S. Attorney Kelly O. Hayes commended the FBI, BPD, West Virginia State Police and West Virginia Parole and Probation Office for their work in the investigation, the release states. Hayes also thanked Assistant U.S. Attorneys Reema Sood and Paul E. Budlow who prosecuted the federal case.
According to the release, this case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorney's Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims.
For more information about Project Safe Childhood, visit justice.gov/psc.