An Alva man has been charged in Woods County with possession of child pornography after a report from a social media application.

Colton Daniel Sanborn, 24, of Alva, has been charged with aggravated possession of child pornography and with violation of Oklahoma statute via computer. Both are felonies.

The first charge is punishable by imprisonment for not more than life and a fine of not more than $10,000. A person convicted of this crime shall be required to register as a sex offender pursuant to the Sex Offenders Registration Act.

The second charge is punishable by imprisonment for not more than five years or by a fine of not more than $5,000, or by both such imprisonment and fine.

Court records show on Jan. 6, District Attorney’s Investigator Steve Tanio received a National Center for Missing and Exploited Children Cybertip regarding the distribution of child sexual abuse material aka child pornography. The social media application Medialab/Kik reported that on Dec. 27, 2022, the Kik screen/username scailer325 had uploaded/shared with another user or group of users, video or image files containing numerous child pornography images. The IP address was identified through open source as belonging to AT&T wireless.

On Jan. 31, Tanio obtained a valid court order to determine the subscriber information for the individual from AT&T and served the order. On Feb. 5, AT&T responded with the subscriber information for Colton D. Sanborn on Choctaw St. in Alva including the cellphone contact number.

On Feb. 6, Tanio conducted a limited background check of Sanborn, locating an Oklahoma driver’s license with his photograph and birth date.

On Feb. 6, Cherokee Police Chief Ryan McNeil told Tanio in 2018 he received a child pornography complaint regarding Sanborn. A female reported Sanborn had electronically distributed nude images of her when she was under 18 to at least two other individuals. She said Sanborn sent the nude images through his social media account, Snapchat. McNeil said he attempted to obtain information from the account; however, it was deleted. McNeil said he suspended his investigation.

On April 5, Tanio and law enforcement officers from Alva Police, Woods County Sheriff’s Office and OSBI executed a search warrant on Sanborn’s Alva residence. Sanborn was located at the address and detained. Numerous digital storage devices were located and seized from the residence including a Samsung cellular telephone.

On April 5, OSBI Forensics Examiner Meric Mussett, who helped in the search, conducted a forensic preview of digital files contained on the Samsung cellular telephone. He located more than 100 sexually explicit still images and video clips of underage children, which based on his experience and training he determined to be child pornography. Mussett located a Kik social media application for Sanborn on the phone.

According to the court affidavit, on April 5 during a post-Miranda videotaped interview, Sanborn admitted to Tanio he had used the social media application Kik while at his residence in Alva. He indicated his Kik username was Scailer325, and that he had used the Kik account to access and obtain child pornography images. He admitted he had last viewed child pornography images on his cellphone within the past week.