Rochester man sentenced to 20-50 years for child pornography charges
BEAVER – A Rochester man was sentenced Thursday to 20-50 years in state prison, with 238 days credited, for six child pornography charges.
Christian Winterhalter, 48, was sentenced at the Beaver County Courthouse, where Judge Dale M. Fouse sentenced him to 40-100 months for each count.
Winterhalter pleaded guilty on April 6 to six of his 28 charges, which included 26 counts of child pornography, disseminating photos of child sex acts and criminal use of a communication facility.
Sentencing terms
As part of his sentencing, Winterhalter is to pay all court costs, undergo a drug and alcohol evaluation with treatment, undergo a mental health evaluation with treatment, undergo sex offender treatment, and register with Megan’s Law with state police for a lifetime, upon release to probation or parole.
As part of his Megan’s Law registration, Winterhalter must inform police within 48 hours of any change in residence or establishment, of an additional residence or residences, change of employer or employment location for a period of time that will exceed 14 days, or for any aggregate period of time that will exceed 30 days during a calendar year, of termination of employment, or change of institution or location of which he is enrolled as a student, or termination of enrollment.
If he fails to establish a residence, he must inform police of the location of his temporary habitat or other temporary places of abode or dwelling, as well as places that he eats, frequents and engages in leisure activities, any planned destinations, including those outside of the Commonwealth, and the place he receives mail, including a P.O. Box.
Winterhalter must also register with the appropriate authorities in any state he is employed in, carries on a vocation, or as a student if the state requires registration, and must provide police with fingerprints and a photograph.
Recap of case
According to court records, Winterhalter had a profile on the social media site Kik, with the username “winston4773,” and the account registered under “John Smith.”
An agent from the Tarian Regional Undercover Unit posed as a 12-year-old girl and had Winterhalter say he wanted to perform inappropriate actions with the female.
Winterhalter later admitted to police he had a problem, stating he would talk to underage children and exchange nude photos with them, the report said.
Court papers state he had a cell phone that contained multiple group chat threads containing prepubescent children, with one chat thread specifically used for the exchanging of nude images for children between 12-17 years old, and had an Instagram account containing 24 images of child pornography.
On Jan. 24, 2005, he pleaded guilty to a felony count of disseminating sexually explicit materials to a minor, and a summary count of unlawful contact/communication with a minor.
Winterhalter was also convicted of sexual exploitation of a minor in 2019 in North Carolina, where in 2018, he and a minor female sent sexually explicit messages to one another, according to the Union County Sheriff’s Office in Monroe, N.C.
Winterhalter is listed as both a Pennsylvania Megan’s Law offender and on the North Carolina Sex Offender Registry.
Nicholas Vercilla is a staff reporter for the Beaver County Times. He can be reached at nvercilla@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Beaver County Times: Rochester man sentenced to 20-50 years for child pornography charges
