Sacramento Man Sentenced For Sex Trafficking Of A Minor

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Justin Isaac Jackson, 24, of Sacramento, was sentenced today by United States District Judge John A. Mendez to 11 years and four months in prison for sex trafficking of a minor, United States Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner announced.

According to court documents, from January to April 2009, Jackson acted as a pimp for a 16-year-old runaway girl in Sacramento and Santa Cruz. Although he was aware of her age, he purchased motel rooms for her use, drove her to meetings with customers, and provided her with a phone to use to coordinate her prostitution activities. In exchange, Jackson received some of the money that she earned. On April 26, 2009, police stopped Jackson while he was driving a car with the girl and an adult prostitute and arrested him.

At sentencing, Judge Mendez told Jackson that the 135-month sentence was warranted because his conduct reflected “a level of callousness and cultural acceptance of juvenile prostitution that is alarming. As an adult, Jackson thought nothing of promoting the prostitution activities of a young girl he knew to be troubled. Where others would seek to protect, Jackson chose to exploit.”

Supervisory Special Agent Maria Johnson of the Sacramento FBI stated: “Jackson used his victim’s vulnerability and naiveté to coerce her into an exploitive and abusive situation that no minor should ever experience. The FBI and its Child Exploitation Task Force partners are united and committed to identifying and recovering victims of child sex trafficking. We hope that a sense of normalcy will eventually be restored to these minors.”

This case is the product of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Innocence Lost Task Force, a task force composed of the FBI, the Sacramento Police Department, and the Sacramento County Sheriff. Assistant United States Attorney Kyle Reardon prosecuted the case.

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 those who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc. Click on the “resources” tab for information about Internet safety education.