UNO Graduate Student Sentenced for Child Enticement

Acting United States Attorney Jan W. Sharp announced that Zhijun Xia, age 30, of China, was sentenced today to 210 months’ imprisonment by United States District Court Judge John M. Gerrard for Coercion and Enticement of a Minor. There is no parole in the federal system. After his release, Xia will be on supervised release for 5 years and be required to register as a sex offender. Additionally, Xia was ordered to pay $3,000 in restitution. Xia will be deported back to China after serving his sentence.

Judge Gerrard noted in pronouncing this sentence and recognizing the trauma the victim suffered that “It’s the Court’s hope the victim knows these incidents should not shape her life.”

Between June 1, 2018 to February 28, 2020, Xia was a graduate student at the University of Nebraska Omaha. Xia is a Chinese national. Xia met the victim’s mother who hired Xia to tutor the victim in the Chinese language. Xia began tutoring the victim in June of 2018. Xia met the victim in person for the tutoring sessions and began communicating with the victim over the social media application WeChat. Xia began inquiring over WeChat about the victim’s sexual history.

On July 10, 2018, the victim attended a summer camp at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, Nebraska. Xia messaged the victim over the Internet using WeChat about his plan to visit her in Lincoln on July 11. During this conversation, Xia discussed various forms of birth control with the victim in response to the victim relaying her fears of becoming pregnant while in high school. Xia reserved a room at the Red Roof Inn and Suites in Lincoln for the night of July 11. Xia picked up the victim from the University of Nebraska campus and took the victim to the Red Roof Inn, where he subjected the victim to sexual penetration. Xia was 27 years of age and the victim was 15 years of age. It is a crime under Nebraska State law for someone over the age of 25 to subject someone between the ages of 12 and 16 to sexual penetration. Immediately following this incident, Xia continued to message the victim on WeChat regarding the July 11 incident.

Xia has also pled guilty to one count of First Degree Sexual Assault in the District Court of Douglas County, Nebraska for events occurring with the same victim in Omaha. He is scheduled to be sentenced on that case on August 25, 2021.

FBI Omaha Special Agent in Charge Eugene Kowel said, “The family of Zhijun Xia’s victim trusted him as an academic and tutor.  He used that trust to prey on a teenage girl.  His sentence today serves as an example of FBI Omaha’s unwavering commitment to work with our law enforcement partners to investigate and prosecute anyone who victimizes children.”

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by United States Attorney’s Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Omaha Police Department, the University of Nebraska-Omaha Police Department, and the Lincoln Police Department.