30-year Sentence for Owatonna Sex Offender who Plotted Murder of Victim’s Family
Photo via Sherburne County Jail
A 31-year-old sex offender from Owatonna has been sentenced to 30 years in federal prison for producing child pornography and threatening to carry out a violent murder plot.
Michael Lee Kurkowski was sentenced this week after pleading guilty to producing sexually explicit images of a minor and sending graphic messages about a plan to kill the victim’s parents, assault the victim’s sister and then murder her, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Court documents reveal that Kurkowski initially came to the attention of law enforcement in March 2021, after officers in Cumberland County, Penn., began investigating his communication with a minor. Kurkowski had traveled to Pennsylvania in an attempt to meet the victim, despite the minor trying to end the contact. He was arrested and later convicted in Cumberland County for corruption of a minor, serving 142 days in jail followed by probation. His probation conditions included registering as a sex offender and prohibitions against contacting the victim or engaging in dangerous behavior.
In Nov. 2021, authorities discovered Kurkowski was again exploiting a different minor and sending messages outlining his plan to travel to Pennsylvania to carry out the violent crimes against his former victim’s family. In Feb. 2022, law enforcement intercepted Kurkowski on a Greyhound bus in Ohio as he traveled toward his target.
At the time of his arrest, he was carrying a bag containing electrical tape, a taser, a knife handcuffs and facemasks. Authorities also discovered Kurkowski had searched Google for “countries that don’t extradite to us,” and “how to subdue a person.” Kurkowski also searched penalties for murder in Pennsylvania.
Kurkowski was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Joan N. Ericksen, who emphasized the extreme danger he posed when delivering the sentence. Following his prison term, Kurkowski will be on supervised release for 15 years.
The FBI and multiple police departments from across several states collaborated on the investigation.
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