Marshfield Man Enters Plea in Marathon County for Child Exploitation

Thursday, May 4th, 2023 -- 2:01 PM

(WAOW) A Marshfield man faces charges in Marathon and Wood counties after police say he tied young girls up with duct tape, assaulting them on multiple occasions and storing the images.

According to WAOW, Matthew E. Kinas, 29, faced seven felony charges in Marathon County, but took a plea deal in court on Tuesday, May 2. He pleaded no contest to two counts of child exploitation - videos, records, etc. and possession of child pornography.

He faces up to 100 years in prison and $300,000 in fines at his June 28 sentencing. He faced four more charges, including first-degree sexual assault - sexual contact with a child under age 13; exposing a child to harmful material; possession of child porn; and causing mental harm to a child.

Those charges were dropped but read-into the record. In Wood County, Kinas is also charged with photographing the assaults and saving them on devices. He faces four felony child sexual exploitation charges.

His next court hearing in those cases will be May 5. According to the criminal complaint: In November 2021, a witness identified possible child exploitation material on a computer belonging to Kinas. 

Upon review of Kinas' devices by computer forensics, 24 images and video files saved to the Google Drive account that depicted two girls, one about 11 years old and the other between 5 and 6 years old, with duct tape over their eyes and mouth and hands taped behind their back.

At the time, the younger girl told police Kinas would occasionally baby-sit for her. Those incidents date back to 2018, when they lived in the same trailer home. Kinas moved out of the home later that year. In a February 2021 interview, the other girl who was then 14, told officials the assaults began "when she was 7 or 8."

She said Kinas would duct tape her arms in the front and back. She recalled one instance she said Kinas brought pink duct tape to tie her up because it was her favorite color and she thought it "was creepy," according to the complaint.

In March 2021, Kinas' digital data was seized. There were 50 images of the girls tied up on two iPhones and 70 images on a desktop computer.

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