An active-duty Airman stationed at Minot Air Force Base admitted to investigators that he secretly recorded a 13-year-old family or household member inside his on-base home, according to newly obtained North Dakota court records.
Those recordings became part of a much larger investigation into Cory James Mulrain, a technical sergeant assigned to Minot AFB.
Federal court records reviewed by The Salty Soldier show Mulrain later admitted transporting child sexual abuse material involving a second minor victim into North Dakota, pleaded guilty to sexual exploitation of a child and transportation of child pornography, and was sentenced to 27 years in federal prison.
Editor’s Note: This public version omits some explicit details contained in court records in order to comply with advertising and platform content standards. Subscribers can access the full version, which includes additional details from investigative affidavits, plea documents and other court records.
That federal sentence had already been imposed when Mulrain returned to a North Dakota courtroom and pleaded guilty to a separate Class A felony sex offense involving a child under 15.
The broader court record shows a case stretching from a darknet investigation to crimes committed inside a residence on Minot Air Force Base and involving more than one minor victim.
The investigation began in March 2025, when Homeland Security Investigations in Minot and Bismarck received a referral from HSI Boston concerning users of a darknet website used to stream child sexual abuse material, commonly referred to as CSAM.
According to a sworn affidavit from North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigation Special Agent Taylor Schiller, HSI investigators identified Mulrain as someone who had accessed and viewed CSAM through the site.
The affidavit identified Mulrain at the time as an active member of the U.S. Air Force stationed at Minot Air Force Base.
On March 25, 2025, NDBCI and HSI agents executed a search warrant on Mulrain and his residence on Minot AFB. The warrant authorized investigators to search his electronic devices.
According to Schiller’s affidavit, Mulrain was advised of his Miranda rights and admitted secretly recording a 13-year-old child in a bathroom and bedroom inside his residence. Investigators described the child as a family or household member.
The affidavit says Mulrain also made additional admissions concerning his sexual interest in exploitative material involving minors.
Investigators reported finding three recordings on Mulrain’s cellphone and SD cards. The recordings were dated Jan. 27, Jan. 30 and Feb. 4, 2025, and investigators said they depicted the child in private settings inside Mulrain’s home without her knowledge.
Mulrain was arrested on three North Dakota counts of promoting a sexual performance by a minor, each a Class B felony.
The investigation soon expanded beyond the recordings.
The following day, March 26, the child participated in a forensic interview at the Northern Plains Children’s Advocacy Center in Minot.
During the interview, according to a separate affidavit, the child disclosed that Mulrain had entered her bedroom during the spring of 2024 and subjected her to inappropriate sexual contact while he apparently believed she was asleep.
The child told investigators she was frightened during the incident and that Mulrain stopped when other children in the home began calling for him.
That disclosure resulted in a separate Ward County prosecution charging Mulrain with gross sexual imposition involving sexual contact with a victim under 15, a Class A felony.
The formal charging document alleged that Mulrain engaged in sexual contact with a child younger than 15 during the spring of 2024. The document also states that the offense requires sex-offender registration upon conviction.
The three state charges involving the secret recordings were later dismissed, but court records show the dismissals occurred because federal prosecutors had taken up related conduct.
Ward County prosecutors told the court that Mulrain had been federally indicted on charges that were of the same or similar character, based on the same act or transaction, or connected as part of a common scheme or plan.
A judge dismissed the three state charges without prejudice.
By then, a federal grand jury had indicted Mulrain on three counts: sexual exploitation of a child, transportation of child pornography and possession of materials containing child pornography.
The indictment alleged that between approximately December 2024 and March 2025, Mulrain used or attempted to use a person identified as Minor Victim-1 for the production of sexually explicit visual material.
A second charge reached further back.
Federal prosecutors alleged that in August 2023, Mulrain knowingly transported child pornography by computer.
The third charge accused him of possessing child pornography on March 25, 2025, the day investigators searched his Minot AFB residence. The material involved a prepubescent child or a child younger than 12, according to the indictment.
Mulrain eventually reached a plea agreement with federal prosecutors.
Unlike the initial investigative affidavits, the federal plea agreement contains a factual basis Mulrain personally acknowledged was true and accurate as part of his guilty plea.
Mulrain admitted that between December 2024 and March 2025 he secretly recorded Minor Victim-1 inside a bathroom at a Minot residence for the purpose underlying the federal child-exploitation offense.
That admission tied his federal sexual-exploitation conviction directly to the secret recordings that had initially resulted in North Dakota charges.
The second federal count involved another minor victim and earlier conduct.
Mulrain admitted that in August 2023 he transported child pornography depicting Minor Victim-2 into North Dakota.
The plea agreement therefore establishes at least two separately identified minor victims in the federal prosecution and conduct extending back to 2023.
The plea paperwork also gives a broader indication of the scope of the federal case.
For the sexual-exploitation offense involving Minor Victim-1, federal prosecutors anticipated sentencing enhancements based on the child’s age and Mulrain’s status as a relative of the victim.
For the transportation offense, prosecutors anticipated enhancements because the material involved a child younger than 12, because a computer was used and because the offense involved 600 or more images.
Prosecutors also anticipated enhancements based on what they characterized as a pattern of activity involving sexual abuse or exploitation of a minor and prohibited sexual conduct.
Mulrain pleaded guilty to sexual exploitation of a child and transportation of child pornography. Under the plea agreement, prosecutors agreed to dismiss the remaining possession count.
Before sentencing, Mulrain’s federal public defender asked U.S. District Judge Daniel L. Hovland to impose 20 years in prison.
The defense told the court that Mulrain was remorseful and ashamed of his conduct and had spent his time in custody considering the damage his actions caused his family.
His attorney said he had attempted to provide financial support to his family from custody and noted that Mulrain and his wife were finalizing a divorce.
The defense also cited Mulrain’s lack of prior criminal history, positive employment history and willingness to participate in treatment while asking the court for a 240-month sentence.
His attorneys argued that 20 years would constitute a severe punishment and noted that Mulrain would be nearly 55 years old by the time of his release.
Hovland imposed a longer sentence.
On June 17, 2026, the judge sentenced Mulrain to 324 months — 27 years — in federal prison for sexual exploitation of a child.
Mulrain also received a 240-month sentence for transportation of child pornography. The two prison terms run concurrently, leaving the 27-year sentence as the controlling federal term.
Hovland also imposed 15 years of supervised release and forfeiture. The remaining possession count was dismissed on the government’s motion.
But Mulrain’s North Dakota case was not over.
The gross-sexual-imposition prosecution stemming from the child’s forensic interview remained pending after the federal sentencing.
On Aug. 4, 2026, Mulrain pleaded guilty in Ward County District Court to gross sexual imposition involving a victim under 15.
After accepting the plea, Judge Gary Lee ordered Mulrain to remain in the Ward County Jail until sentencing.
The court also ordered a presentence investigation, risk assessment and sex-offender evaluation. A state sentencing date had not yet been established in the records reviewed by The Salty Soldier.
The court timeline also provides additional context to recent reporting about the case.
Mulrain had been scheduled for a jury trial Aug. 25, but court records show his guilty plea had actually been entered three weeks earlier, on Aug. 4. The process to change his plea had begun in June.
More significantly, descriptions of Mulrain as someone who had simply pleaded guilty in a separate federal case did not reflect how far that prosecution had already progressed.
By the time his North Dakota guilty plea received renewed attention in August, Mulrain had already been sentenced to 27 years in federal prison.
The records also firmly establish the connection between the investigation and Minot Air Force Base.
The state affidavits identify Mulrain as an active-duty Airman stationed there. Investigators searched his residence on the installation and said the secret recordings of the 13-year-old were made inside that home.
The Salty Soldier has asked Minot Air Force Base for additional information concerning Mulrain’s military service, including his duty position, assignment dates, current Air Force status and whether the service took administrative or disciplinary action following his arrest and convictions.
The base was also asked whether Air Force investigators or Security Forces participated in the investigation and whether the Air Force wished to comment on Mulrain’s state and federal guilty pleas.
No response had been received at the time this report was prepared.
The civilian court record nevertheless establishes a disturbing sequence of events involving an active-duty Airman living at Minot AFB.
A federal investigation into darknet CSAM activity led agents to Mulrain’s home.
Investigators discovered secret recordings of a 13-year-old family member and said Mulrain admitted making them.
A forensic interview then led to a separate allegation of sexual contact with the child and, ultimately, Mulrain’s guilty plea to gross sexual imposition.
The federal investigation also uncovered conduct involving another minor victim dating back to at least August 2023.
Mulrain pleaded guilty to two federal felonies and asked for a 20-year sentence.
He received 27 years in federal prison.
He now remains subject to sentencing in North Dakota for the separate gross-sexual-imposition conviction.
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