Adair County Resident Pleads Guilty To Coercion And Enticement And Felon In Possession Of A Firearm

MUSKOGEE, OKLAHOMA – The United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Oklahoma announced that Jakoma Twohat Sanders, age 35, of Adair County, Oklahoma entered a guilty plea to one count of Coercion and Enticement, and one count of Felon in Possession of a Firearm.

The Indictment alleged that beginning on or about June 5, 2018, and continuing until on or about August 6, 2018, Sanders used a means of interstate commerce to knowingly persuade, induce, entice, and coerce a minor child to engage in sexual activity.  The Indictment also alleged that on September 24, 2019, Sanders was found to knowingly be in possession of a firearm while having previously been convicted of a felony punishable by more than one year in prison.

The charges arose from an investigation by Homeland Security Investigations, the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

The investigation began after Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation received a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children about the Sanders communicating with minor females over the internet and inducing them to engage in sexual activity.  When the defendant was arrested, he was found to be in possession of a firearm after having previously been convicted of a felony.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.  For more information about internet safety education, please visit www.justice.gov/psc and click on the tab “Resources.”

If you have information about the physical or online exploitation of children, please call the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI (1-800-225-5324) or submit a tip online at tips.fbi.gov.  You can also contact the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children at 1-800-THE–LOST (1-800-843-5678) or submit a tip online at report.cybertip.org.

The Honorable Judge Gerald L. Jackson, Magistrate Judge in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma in Muskogee, accepted the plea and ordered the completion of a presentence investigation report.  Sanders was remanded to the custody of the U.S. Marshal pending sentencing.

Assistant United States Attorneys Morgan Muzljakovich and Caila Cleary represented the United States.