A Decatur man, Tyler Pulliam, aged 34, is facing 15 felony charges related to the exchange of child pornography. He claims these actions took place while he was under the influence of drugs.

According to court documents, Pulliam was apprehended after a thorough investigation spanning several months, which focused on his communications via the messaging platform Kik. He is now facing multiple allegations pertaining to child pornography offenses.

• 9 counts of reproducing or selling child pornography
• 4 counts of possessing film or photos of child pornography
• 2 counts of reproducing a moving depiction of child pornography

On top of that, Pulliam is also facing a misdemeanor count of possessing a firearm without a FOID card.

Detective Timothy Wisniewski from the Decatur Police detailed in an affidavit that the probe began in February. This followed a tip-off to the Illinois Attorney General’s Office from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The alert was subsequently directed to Decatur Police since the IP address in question was traced back to a location in Decatur.

The tip came from Kik, whose administrators observed on Aug. 14 a late-night uploading of 11 files that contained apparent child pornography. The account that made that upload — “brattybratty7” — also logged into Kik several times on July 30 and July 31 and uploaded two composite images consisting of smaller images, each depicting children under the age of 13 engaged in sex.

“I also observed Kik account brattybratty7 sent a selfie-style photograph of a white male to another Kik user on 7-31-2025…which was sent during the timeframe this account was disseminating files containing child pornography to other Kik users,” Wisniewski said. “The white male appeared to be Tyler based on my review of the body-worn camera video from the theft report he made in January 2025.”

Wisniewski said all of the files uploaded to Kik were sent using the same IP address, which was registered to the Comcast account of a home on Division Street near Main and Water Streets.

Detectives served a search warrant for this home on March 28. They seized multiple computers and cell phones, one of which was found in Pulliam’s bedroom. The computer’s data showed that the email associated with the Kik account uploading child pornography was stored in the Google Chrome browser.

Wisniewski said that during a mirandized interview, Pulliam admitted to previously using Kik but couldn’t remember his username. Pulliam added that he has multiple email accounts that only he has access to — Wisniewski said one of those email accounts is associated with the Kik account uploading child pornography.

“Tyler discussed having prior strange late-night conversations of sexual nature with other people on Kik,” Wisniewski said. “Tyler claimed he did not know when these conversations occurred but said they typically occurred when he was using ecstasy or hallucinogenic drugs.”

Pulliam added that he is the only user of the computer found in his bedroom.

The search of the home also revealed that Pulliam had a silver .25 caliber pistol and ammunition. His mother and aunt, who live in the home with him, denied ownership of the gun and said they rarely go upstairs, which is primarily Pulliam’s area of the house.

Pulliam does not possess a valid FOID card or a concealed carry license, Wisniewski said.

Pulliam was arrested after the search of his home and was booked into the Macon County Jail. Except for his court hearings, he’s been there ever since; he was denied pretrial release by Judge Lindsey Shelton.

Waiving his right to a preliminary hearing, Pulliam pleaded not guilty to all 16 of the counts against him. He is due back in court on June 6 for a pretrial hearing.