MN Sex Offender Who Threatened To Kill Child Sentenced To 30 Years

MINNEAPOLIS — An Owatonna, Minnesota sex offender who threatened to kill a former child sexual abuse victim has been sentenced to 30 years in federal prison, U.S. Attorney Andrew M. Luger announced.

Michael Lee Kurkowski, 31, pleaded guilty to one count of threatening interstate communication and one count of production of child pornography on Feb. 26. He was sentenced Wednesday in U.S. District Court by Judge Joan N. Ericksen, who cited "the raw facts of danger" when handing down the longer-than-typical sentence.

In March 2021, law enforcement in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, began investigating Kurkowski regarding the communication and exchange of sexually explicit images of a minor.

Kurkowski traveled to Pennsylvania to locate the minor and to try to continue a "relationship" after the minor attempted to end the online communications, authorities said.

Kurkowski was subsequently charged and convicted in Pennsylvania of corruption of a minor. He was sentenced to 142 days in prison.

In November 2021, law enforcement began investigating Kurkowski’s online communications with another minor.

Kurkowski’s messages described, in graphic detail, a plan to travel to Pennsylvania where Kurkowski would murder the minor's parents, rape his sister, and then kill her in front of him, according to authorities.

On Feb. 4, 2022, law enforcement learned that Kurkowski had purchased a Greyhound bus ticket and was en route to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, the general location of the minor and his family.

FBI investigators tracked Kurkowski to a bus stop in Toledo, Ohio and arrested him.

During his arrest, Kurkowski had a bag containing 16 heavy flex cuffs, electrical tape, a taser, a knife, rubber gloves, handcuffs, and hooded facemasks, authorities said.

Kurkowski’s phone contained Google search terms including "man kills family of 5," "countries that don’t extradite to us," "how to subdue a person," "best knives used to kill," and the penalties for murder in Pennsylvania, according to investigators.