This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2010, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
A Salt Lake City man on probation for distributing child pornography faces new charges in federal court after detectives caught him with more than 2,318 images of nude children on his computer.
Steven Nathaniel Snowball, 23, was charged in U.S. District Court this week with felony distribution of child pornography and possession of child pornography after an undercover FBI agent in Pennsylvania posed online as a person seeking to trade child porn.
The Pennsylvania agent connected with a user named Abstractinsanity, who was trading child pornography using file-sharing software, according to a federal court complaint.
The agent determined the user had more than 2,318 files containing child pornography. The agent worked with FBI agents in Salt Lake City, who traced the user to a computer in Snowball's Salt Lake City home, the complaint states.
Agents served a search warrant on Snowball's home Tuesday and seized a laptop that contained child porn, the complaint states.
Snowball admitted he is Abstractinsanity and distributed and received child porn, according to the complaint.
Snowball made his first appearance in federal court Wednesday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Samuel Alba. Prosecutors are requesting he be kept in custody. Alba set a detention hearing for Friday.
Snowball faces up to 30 years in federal prison with a 15-year mandatory minimum sentence if he is convicted.
At the time of his latest arrest, Snowball was on a three-year probation for a conviction in state court of two counts of second-degree felony sexual exploitation of a minor. In that case, agents with the Utah Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force identified Snowball as a user trading sexual images of children online.