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ARLINGTON, Va. (7News) — An Arlington, Virginia, man convicted of sexually explicit conversations with minors and urinating on his laptop to hide explicit images will spend nearly two decades in a federal prison, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office for Eastern Virginia.

A judge on Wednesday sentenced Stephen Chadwick Howell, 25, to 18 years and 10 months behind bars for several incidents that spanned from May 2023 and May 2025. During a nine-hour standoff at his home on May 7, 2025, Howell urinated on his laptop to try and stop federal agents from accessing it, though authorities later recovered several explicit pictures of children.

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Prosecutors said the 25-year-old spend those two years engaging in inappropriate conversations with at least three underaged victims, including one child in New York City.

In a conversation with the New York victim, which took place from Jan. 2023 to Jan. 2024, officials said Howell spoke to the kid about their shared interest in child sex abuse material, shared and requested explicit images and requested advice on grooming minors.

Howell met at least one of the victim's and engaged in sexual activities and recorded it, which he later shared to the victim, federal attorneys said.

As federal agents carried out a search warrant at his home in May 2025, officials said Howell did not follow instructions to leave the home and instead retrieved two kitchen knives and barricaded himself in his bedroom. It was while in the bedroom police said he urinated on the laptop.