By Brandi Makuski

A former Stevens Point man on Thursday was convicted on 29 counts of possession of child pornography.

Christopher J. Ehlenfeldt, 41, faces over 700 years in prison after being found guilty by six men and six women on Aug. 31. The jury reached their decision after about two hours of deliberation.

Ehlenfeldt was charged after his wife turned over his computer to the Stevens Point Police Dept. in August of 2012. Investigators from SPPD and the Portage Co. Sheriff’s Office worked with computer forensic experts from the Wis. Division of Criminal Investigation, uncovering more than 25,000 images and videos of children — some as young as three — being sexually assaulted and exploited by adults and animals.

“The DCI analyst indicated it was astounding; he stopped counting child pornography images at 25,000 because he just didn’t have anymore time,” said Portage Co. District Attorney Louis Molepske. “All the children were identified by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children as known child victims.”

Ehlenfeldt testified before Judge Thomas Flugaur that he initially became addicted to ordinary pornography, but that his predilections became more bizarre and eventually involved digitally-created animal/child pornography, and later,  adults sexually assaulting children.

Jurors in the case had to endure viewing “horrendous sexual exploitation and assaults”, Molepske said, and described their mood as “grim”.

“A lot of people don’t realize, we play motion videos of the images for the jury, of children being sexually assaulted,” Molepske said, adding his office provided the services of professional counselors for those on the jury who were affected by the evidence. “[The jurors] did their duty….they can’t just say ‘guilty’ or ‘not guilty’. They had to watch each video, follow jury instructions and deliberate on each individual count.”

Ehlenfeldt is currently serving a 25-year sentence — 15 years of initial confinement followed by 10 years of extended supervision — in Shawano Co. after being convicted on 53 counts of possession of child pornography in 2015.

Ehlenfeldt returns to Portage Co. Circuit Court Branch III for sentencing on Oct. 27 at 8:30 AM. He faces up to 728 years in prison.

Molespek said he also plans to request Ehlenfeldt be placed on lifetime supervision as a “serious sex offender,” a precautionary measure meaning Ehlenfeldt would be placed on GPS monitoring if he is ever released from prison.