Martinsburg Man Pleads Guilty to Distributing and Possessing Child Pornography

 SYRACUSE, NEW YORK – Randell Adist, age 50, of Martinsburg, New York pled guilty today to distributing and possessing child pornography. The announcement was made by Acting United States Attorney Antoinette T. Bacon and Janeen DiGuiseppi, Special Agent in Charge of the Albany Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

As part of his guilty plea before United States District Court Judge David N. Hurd, Adsit, who has a prior New York State conviction for possessing a sexual performance by a child, admitted that he distributed child pornography using a social media application from approximately February 2020 through September 2020. Adsit also admitted that, on November 11, 2020, he possessed approximately 40 files depicting child pornography on his cell phone.

When Adist is sentenced on December 22, 2021, he faces at least 15 years and up to 40 years in prison for distributing child pornography and at least 10 years and up to 20 years in prison for possessing child pornography. In addition, Adist will be required to serve a term of supervised release of between five years and life after his term of incarceration and will be required to register as a sex offender. A defendant’s sentence is imposed by a judge based on the statute the defendant is charged with violating, the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, and other factors.

This case was investigated by the FBI Syracuse Mid-State Child Exploitation Task Force, comprised of FBI Special Agents and Investigators of the New York State Police, Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI), and Computer Crimes Unit (CCU) and is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael D. Gadarian.