Registered Offender, 25, Sentenced To 50 Years For Exploiting Children While On Supervised Release

An Abilene man has been sentenced to federal prison for producing child po--ography. The man was already a registered s-x offender when he committed the crimes. On May 19, the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas, Ryan Raybould, announced that the man had been sentenced to 50 years in federal prison.

Kai Isaiah Ranaglia-Nelson, 25, was indicted in December 2025 on the charges of producing child p--nography. Subsequently, in January 2026, he pleaded guilty. On May 19, he was sentenced to 600 months in federal prison by U.S. District Judge Barntley Starr.

Nelson was previously convicted in 2020. He pleaded guilty to two counts of s--ual extortion and one count of sexual exploitation of a minor in Arizona. He was accused of grooming and exploiting multiple children at that time and was sentenced to five years in prison.

In 2023, Nelson was out on supervised release. However, he went back to his old crimes and began exploiting children. This time, his crimes came to light after he exploited a 13-year-old child into producing multiple s--ually explicit videos through Snapchat.

Nelson was caught as part of Operation Relentless Justice, which focused on identifying, tracking, and arresting child s-- predators across the nation. It resulted in the arrest of over 293 child sexual abuse offenders and also helped law enforcement rescue over 205 child victims.

The coordinated investigation was handled by all 56 FBI field offices, the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS) in the Department’s Criminal Division, and U.S. Attorneys across the country.

After Nelsen’s sentencing, U.S Attorney Ryan Raybould said, “Despite previously being convicted of s--ually extorting minors, the defendant preyed on young kids to coax them into producing and sending him child p--nography. In the Northern District of Texas, we will make sure that these criminals get ejected from the community and sit in federal prison for as long as possible under the law.

He added, “The Judge sent an unshakable message to the community: if you prey on North Texas kids, you will go to federal prison for a very long time.”

Nelson’s case was handled by the FBI Dallas Field Office, the Taylor County Sheriff’s Office, and the Abilene Police Department. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Whitney James.