Federal Jury Convicts Registered Sex Offender of Child Exploitation Crimes

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. - After three days of trial, a federal jury convicted Alex Kai Tick Chin, 39, of San Francisco, California, on August 22, 2024, of production of child pornography, enticement of a minor, and committing a sex crime against a minor while a registered sex offender.

Evidence at trial proved that from on or about December 12, 2020, through on or about February 14, 2021, Chin did employ, use, persuade, induce, entice and coerce a minor female residing within the Southern District of West Virginia to record and send him sexually explicit images of herself via the Snapchat multimedia instant messaging app. To do so, Chin would compliment the minor female and say they were in a romantic relationship, but he would also threaten to harm himself if she did not send him sexually explicit images. Chin was a registered sex offender at the time, and has been following his felony conviction for possession of child pornography in the Superior Court of California, County of San Francisco, on December 27, 2017.

Chin exchanged messages with a second minor female during the same time period who also resided within the Southern District of West Virginia, engaging in sexual conversations and soliciting nude images from her as well. Chin also threatened to harm himself in conversations with the second minor female unless she complied with his demands. Chin sent photos and videos of himself to the second minor female, including an image of himself masturbating. Chin continued to communicate with both minor females until early March 2022, when he drove from California in a white panel van equipped with a mattress to the Southern District of West Virginia. There, he attempted unsuccessfully to meet both minor females in person.

Chin is scheduled to be sentenced on December 9, 2024, and faces a mandatory minimum of 35 years and up to life in prison.

"Mr. Chin preyed upon a minor female, attempted to do the same with a second female child, and then lied repeatedly to the jury to conceal and avoid responsibility for his criminal conduct," said United States Attorney Will Thompson "I commend the U.S. Department of Homeland Security-Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) for the investigative work in this case, and Assistant United States Attorneys Jennifer Rada Herrald and Courtney L. Finney and our trial team for securing guilty verdicts on all three counts in the indictment."

United States District Judge Robert C. Chambers presided over the jury trial.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys' Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), 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 to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.

A copy of this press release is located on the website of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of West Virginia. Related court documents and information can be found on PACER by searching for Case No. 3:22-cr-87.

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