CHICAGO – A Chicago man facing 88 charges of child pornography pleaded guilty Friday to a single charge in exchange for a three-year prison sentence. After receiving various credits, 24-year-old Cristhian Basabe is expected to be released on parole in approximately six months.
Prosecutors said tips from two social media companies to a national child protection hotline led investigators to Basabe in March 2024.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) received the first tip about the cases of Kik, a messaging app, in October 2021 about a user named suprakillah_6b5. According to prosecutors and Basabe’s arrest report, the account was suspected of posting child pornography to his system in July of that year.
Kik also contacted NCMEC about other accounts Basabe allegedly operated in 2022 and 2023 under the names blingblingboy07_hx7, blingboy_pji, and blingblingdeeznutz_81z.
Later that year, Snapchat contacted NCMEC with similar concerns about an account called senorcristhian, the report said.
Search warrants executed on the accounts revealed explicit images and videos involving minors, including some showing Basabe, prosecutors said. Researchers linked Basabe to the accounts via IP addresses and network connections.
Investigators who arrested Basabe reportedly found evidence on his phone showing that he had been transmitting child pornography to others via text message. The videos showed Basabe performing a sex act on a girl under the age of 18, prosecutors allege in a detainer motion filed during Basabe’s first court appearance.
Initially charged with four felonies, Basabe’s troubles increased after a grand jury reviewed the charges and brought an 88-count true bill against him. Prosecutors dropped 87 of those charges in a plea deal with Basabe.
Judge Alfredo Maldonado imposed a three-year prison sentence, which will be reduced to eighteen months for good behavior. It will be further reduced by 344 days of credit that Basabe has earned since his arrest in jail.
