Registered sex offender sentenced to five years in prison in child abuse case
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POCATELLO – A 34-year-old man who was sent to prison in 2017 for sexually abusing a child was sentenced last Thursday for an incident in 2024 where police say he touched and sexually photographed a 15-year-old girl.
Logan Khaide Gabriel Kniffen was originally charged with two counts of sexual abuse of a child and enticing a child over the internet.
The man accepted a plea agreement in September, where the state dismissed the two sexual abuse charges for a guilty plea on the enticement charge.
According to the plea, Kniffen would serve a sentence of five years fixed and 10 years indeterminate for a total of 15 years. Enticement carries a minimum of one year to a maximum of 15 years in prison.
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Sixth District Judge Robert Naftz sentenced the man on March 6 to five years in prison and 10 years indeterminate, following the agreement.
According to court documents, the 15-year-old’s family reported to Pocatello Police about a relationship between their daughter and Kniffen.
The parents told police that the 24-year-old and Kniffen had known each other for a couple of months and had given the victim gifts, which included a man’s wedding ring and lingerie-style underwear.
The family had looked up Kniffen after learning of the gifts on iCourt and discovered his previous arrest in 2017 for child sex abuse. They learned he was also a registered sex offender.
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During her interview, the victim told police the man had given her the underwear when he helped her family move.
The victim said the 34-year-old had previously asked her for sexually suggestive pictures of her, and asked if she was sexually active.
The document says the man told the victim to wear the underwear, and she proceeded into her room. The man followed her inside of the room.
The victim told police she did not know what to do and changed in front of him. The man then told her to lie on her bed and proceeded to get on top of her.
When police began to look into Kniffen, they arrested him for a different incident in Pocatello.
The manager of the transitional housing unit where the man had been living told officers Kniffen told other residents about the relationship. He allegedly threatened other residents that he’d kill the girl and her family if they went to the police.
A forensic analysis of the 34-year-old’s phone led police to find several photos of the victim wearing lingerie-style underwear.
Using a program to find explicit materials showed 716 images that included nudity and 502 images of suspected explicit materials of children.
The document said that 30 images stood out to police because they “depicted extremely” young girls.
Officers determined there was enough information between the messages and images to arrest Kniffen.
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