Eugene man gets 12 years for child sex abuse material case

A Eugene man who used Kik to solicit and trade child sex abuse material, and who admitted abusing minors in a Eugene park, was sentenced to 12 years in federal prison.

Gino J. Hinojos-Castle, 34, was sentenced to 144 months in prison followed by 5 years of supervised release. He was also ordered to pay restitution to the victims depicted in the material he exchanged online.

Prosecutors said Hinojos-Castle used Kik on Aug. 12, 2024, and Oct. 14, 2024, to chat with a minor and the father of another minor and asked for sexually explicit images of the children. Court documents say that from June 2024 through July 2025, he sent child sexual abuse material to users on Kik and described past sexual abuse of minors in a Eugene park. The messages placed the abuse in Lane County, not just online, tying the case directly to local public spaces and the children who use them.

The investigation moved from those chats to a cellphone seizure at the Eugene airport on July 24, 2025, after Hinojos-Castle arrived from an out-of-state trip. Agents said the phone had traveled with him from Wyoming, and investigators found child sexual abuse material and chat applications linked to the case on the device.

A federal grand jury in Eugene indicted Hinojos-Castle on Sept. 18, 2025, on six counts, including attempted enticement of a minor, attempting to use a minor to produce a visual depiction of sexually explicit conduct, and transportation, distribution and receipt of child pornography. He pleaded guilty on Jan. 28, 2026, to attempted enticement of a minor.

U.S. Attorney Scott E. Bradford said the sentence reflects the seriousness of the conduct and the lasting harm to victims. Assistant U.S. Attorney William M. McLaren prosecuted the case, and the FBI investigated it under Project Safe Childhood, the Justice Department initiative launched in May 2006 to combat child sexual exploitation and abuse.

For Eugene families, the case is a reminder that abuse can surface through ordinary phone apps and then leave a trail in the real world, from a park to an airport checkpoint. It also puts local institutions on notice that online grooming, image requests and references to local locations can be warning signs long before an arrest is made.