Matthew Bryan Thilges, 60, of House Springs has been sentenced to seven years in prison for possession of child pornography. He also has been ordered to pay a total of $57,000 in restitution to 17 victims, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced.
Thilges was sentenced today, Sept. 20 after pleading guilty on June 7 to receiving child pornography, court records show.
FBI agents raided Thilges’ mobile home on Oct. 21, 2020, after he had made escalating threats against social media/tech employees, Democrats, police and others in YouTube video comments. The agents seized numerous electronic devices that contained images and videos of child pornography and a child-size sex doll, according to the guilty plea agreement.
Special Agent Kyle Storm said in an affidavit accompanying the charges that the FBI began monitoring Thilges in July 2020 after he was linked to YouTube video comments that allegedly said he wanted to kill Google and YouTube employees.
In one comment, he reportedly said, “I would love to stick a sword right through” YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki. He also allegedly said former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey “must die,” according to the affidavit.
In July 2020, Thilges wrote, “I do need violence. I need to kill alphabet/google/youtube employees NOW!” the affidavit said.
Thilges also made threats against Democrats, allegedly writing on July 13, “Kill ALL democrats. Start at alphabet/google/youtube. KILL THEM ALL !!!!!” according to the report.
In August 2020, he wrote, “Make the world a better place, shoot a democrat in the face. Start with every employee of twitter, google, facebook, youtube and the mainstream media. America thanks you,” the affidavit said.
His reported threats increased in October, Storm said.
In October 2020, Thilges wrote, “If a cop, ANY cop, shows up at your door WITHOUT a warrant and attempts to KIDNAP you or any member of your family, you are not only entitled to shoot it in the face, you are OBLIGATED to do so as an American Citizen.”
He also wrote, “No more talk. Just shoot. Shoot to kill. Anywhere and everywhere. I am a staunch vehement conservative Libertarian and I have absolutely had enough of the government thugs and government bureaucrats. They ALL need to DIE right along with blm, antifa and EVERY member of the communist democrat party of America, and “democrat children are easier to shoot than democrat ‘parents.’ They’re not as fast.”
During the search of Thilges’ mobile home, agents allegedly found eight assault rifles; a handgun; two loaded 100-round drum magazines; a tactical vest with three loaded pistol magazines; four loaded rifle magazines and additional pistol magazines, assault rifle magazines and ammunition, according to the report.
The search also uncovered a nearly 4-foot tall, child-like sex doll in a bedroom closet and photographs of a partially-clothed girl on Thilges’ phone. A search of his computer allegedly revealed thousands of images of child pornography that had been deleted but still was stored in the computer’s unallocated space. There also reportedly was one child porn image stored on his computer, Storm said.
Thilges plea agreement said had more than 10,000 images of child pornography.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Colleen Lang prosecuted the case, which was investigated by the FBI.