Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
Kyle William Spitze, 27, of Friendsville, TN was sentenced today to 77 years in prison for production of child sexual abuse material (CSAM), abetting the distribution of animal crushing videos, and possessing and accessing with the intent to view CSAM. Following his imprisonment, he was also sentenced to lifetime supervised release and will be required to register with state sex offender registries and comply with special sex offender conditions.
“The Department has pledged to take out online predator networks and today’s sentence is one step toward justice for the families and children harmed by 764,” said Attorney General Todd Blanche. “These types of crimes are the worst of the worst: preying on vulnerable children in the name of a violent and twisted ideology. Federal law enforcement will not stop until nihilistic violent extremist groups and their depraved members are identified and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
“Today’s sentencing sends a strong message that this FBI and our Department of Justice partners will relentlessly hold accountable any individual who preys on children,” said FBI Director Kash Patel. “As we’ve made clear from the beginning: this FBI is laser focused on identifying, locating, and arresting any participants in Nihilistic Violent Extremist (NVE) networks – and we have dedicated personnel across all 50 states working on these high priority investigations. We arrested 500% more NVE offenders with our partners last year for a reason – because we have a renewed mission to bring these predators to justice, and that’s exactly what we’ll do. I want to thank our FBI Nashville Field Office and the Knoxville Resident Agency who pursued this case and succeeded in bringing justice to the victims and their families.”
“Spitze is one of the original members of the nihilistic violent extremist groups ‘Harm Nation’ and ‘764,’ and was committed to bringing about the downfall of society through terrorism, specifically by targeting children and other vulnerable people and extorting them to engage in criminal sexual conduct, self-harm, and mass casualty events,” said Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg. “Today’s sentence of 77 years, the longest federal sentence ever imposed on a nihilistic violent extremist, sends a strong message that civil society will not tolerate such depravity. The National Security Division will work tirelessly with our law-enforcement partners to identify and prosecute these predators and keep our children safe from this new form of terrorism.”
“This sentence reflects the abhorrent nature of the defendant’s crimes, which targeted impressionable children and caused unimaginable harm,” said U.S. Attorney Francis M. Hamilton III for the Eastern District of Tennessee. “NVE members and leaders are a threat to our communities, and our office is committed to prosecuting those individuals to the fullest extent.”
“Employing and pressuring children, among the most vulnerable members of our society, to produce sexually explicit and harmful material is unconscionable,” said Special Agent in Charge Terence G. Reilly of the FBI Nashville Field Office. “The FBI, alongside our local, state, and federal partners, will relentlessly pursue those associated with Nihilistic Violent Extremism networks who target and exploit children. We will use every lawful tool available to disrupt and dismantle these networks, prevent the spread of their depraved ideology, and protect children from further harm.”
Spitze, also known as “Crimhn,” “Criminal,” and “Criminaloli,” was a member of the NVE group “764,” and an administrator of the 764 network “HarmNation.” NVE groups such as 764 and HarmNation use online social media platforms to produce and distribute extreme gore media and child sexual abuse material depicting vulnerable, juvenile populations; often conducting group, coordinated extortion of under-aged victims to comply with the groups’ depraved and perverse demands.
In December of 2023, the FBI started looking into tips that HarmNation members were distributing child sexual abuse material. Spitze was identified as one of those members and found to have hosted a social media channel where he uploaded images and videos of nude minor girls who had self-mutilated with cuts and gashes, with variations of Spitze’s “Crim” or “Criminal” monikers written in blood on themselves or carved into their bodies. The channel also hosted images of animal mutilation, with a variation of “Crim” written in the images.
In February of 2024, investigators obtained a search warrant for Spitze’s cellphone, which contained similar images and videos, particularly of two minor victims, one of which had written “crim” on her chest scrawled in her own blood. The minor victim later admitted to FBI that she was threatened by Spitze to produce the images for him to upload on a separate social media channel. Spitze admitted to investigators that he had a terrorist motive in committing his crimes.
Spitze pleaded guilty to two counts of production of child sexual exploitation material, one count of abetting the distribution of animal crushing videos, and one count of possessing and accessing with the intent to view child sexual exploitation material.
The FBI investigated the case.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer Kolman for the Eastern District of Tennessee prosecuted the case. Trial Attorneys Justin Sher and James Donnelly for the National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section provided assistance.
The Justice Department remains vigilant against the threat of NVE networks like 764 that operate within the United States and around the globe. NVEs often target vulnerable individuals, including minors, using social media platforms to share CSAM and gore material, and groom victims toward committing acts of violence. Victims are often extorted, coerced, compelled, and blackmailed into complying with NVE demands, including self-mutilation, online and in-person sexual acts, harm to animals, sexual exploitation of siblings and others, acts of violence, threats of violence, suicide, and murder. For more information on how to protect children and others, read about the online risks here: https://www.fbi.gov/how-we-can-help-you/parents-and-caregivers-protecting-your-kids and the FBI’s March 2025 public service announcement.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood (PSC), a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006, by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the U.S. Attorney’s Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, PSC marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims.
For more information about PSC, please visit www.justice.gov/psc. For more information about internet safety education, please visit www.justice.gov/psc/resources.html and click the tab “resources.”