CASPER — A 26-year-old Casper man who once bragged about having sex with young children was sentenced on Friday in Natrona County District Court to 45 to 50 years for raping a child and soliciting others to do the same.
Christopher James Schmidt also received a sentence of an additional 13 to 15 years in prison to be served consecutively on four counts of sexual exploitation and another charge involving sexual contact with a minor.
Natrona County District Court Judge Joshua Eames told Schmidt that the case represented “some of the most horrible facts and disturbing facts” that he has seen in his legal career.
“You took joy in the pain of your (victims),” he said.
In a tearful statement to the court, with his mother and a brother in the courtroom, Schmidt apologized to his family saying he had “destroyed the future of my entire family with my disgusting, immoral actions.”
“I’m sorry for the burden I’ve become to this court, the state, and my family,” he said. He apologized to his ex-wife and children and called himself an “abomination” as a father.
Schmidt also pleaded with the court for a balance between punishment, rehabilitation, and treatment.
“Give me an opportunity to show that I am more than my actions,” he said.
Consecutive Sentence Call
Deputy District Attorney Blaine Nelson argued for consecutive sentences in the cases and called Wyoming Department of Criminal Investigation Ryan Hieb, who led the investigation of Schmidt to the stand. Nelson emphasized a part of the case where Schmidt had posted online about a sexual act on a young child and had asked others online if they “wanted to see” or participate.
Hieb said the post was “essentially an advertisement” for the sexual abuse of children.
Schmidt’s defense attorney Kurt Infanger objected to the continued testimony characterizing it as “just putting on a show for the press.”
The judge overruled the objection, but noted that it was “cumulative to what I am already aware of.”
Schmidt’s mother, Pamela Schmidt, addressed the court prior to sentencing telling Judge Eames that her son “is a good person and a hard worker.”
“He’s not evil,” she said. “I don’t know what led to this. He has a good heart, his mind is in a bad place, he’s not an evil person.”
Infanger told the judge that he has had many conversations with Schmidt and believed that his client has a mental health issue that he wants to get treatment for.
“He has a hard time believing what he did,” Infanger said. “He has a extreme amount of remorse and he wished he would have received treatment when the deviant thoughts began.”
Never A Traffic Ticket
Infanger noted that the pre-sentence report showed that he never had a traffic ticket or any contact with the law prior to last May. He said he thought Schmidt could be rehabilitated and asked the judge to consider a potential sentence to the state’s youth offender program or a minimum concurrent sentence for the two groups of charges of between 25 to 30 years.
Nelson argued the case was too serious for the youth offender program and since Schmidt’s actions did not involve drugs or alcohol as factors in his actions, it meant he made “choices.”
“It is deviant and dark behavior inflicted on a child,” Nelson said. He said one of the posts Schmidt made referred to “training.”
“What is this child going to be trained in? Sexual abuse. Rape,” he said. Nelson said Schmidt destroyed his family with his actions and in possessing child sexual images and video was contributing to crimes against children.
Nelson said Schmidt’s actions “were of such a nature that the threat to public safety” was extreme. He argued for concurrent sentences between the two groups of charges.
Schmidt was given 271 days credit for jail time and assessed costs in the case.
The 45 - 50-year sentence was for two charges of sexual abuse of a minor in the first degree stemming from an incident that occurred between Aug. 1 - 31, 2024 in Natrona County and a second charge of solicitation of sexual abuse of a minor in the first degree for actions between April 1 - May 15, 2024.
His 13 - to - 15 year sentence covers one sexual exploitation charge related to manufacturing generating, receiving, or reproducing child pornography between Aug. 1, 2023 and May 15, 2024, three charges of sexual exploitation of children related to possession of child pornography between July 1 2022 and May 2024, and one count of illegal sexual contact with a child between Aug. 1, 2023 and Sept. 30, 2023.
A police affidavit in the case states that when DCI special agents initially interviewed Schmidt in May 2024, he admitted to seeing his first images of child pornography at age 16 and regularly viewing pornography before going down that “rabbit hole.”
Dale Killingbeck can be reached at dale@cowboystatedaily.com.
