Silver State Times

A man in Henderson, Nevada, on Dec. 14 was sentenced to 20 years in prison for sex trafficking minors and other related crimes.  

According to the Sierra Sun Times, Robert Marcellus Jones Jr. was charged for crimes against three young girls from New York City after he coerced the girls into sending him sexually explicit photos, promising to pay them allowances if they sent the images and videos. Jones also purchased airline tickets for two of the girls on Nov. 2, 2018, and flew them to Nevada, where he sexually assaulted them.

The National Human Trafficking Hotline received a tip on Nov. 5, 2018, about Jones’ activity on Facebook. He was arrested Nov. 8, and soon after a police forensic review of Jones’ phone revealed sexually explicit images of the three girls, according to the Sierra Sun Times. 

According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Jones was sentenced to prison for 20 years and faces an additional 15 years of probation following his release.

The Sierra Sun Times reports that the case against Jones was investigated by The Las Vegas Metro Police Department and the FBI, prosecuted by United States attorneys Elham Roohani and Brian Whang, and brought to light using the resources of Project Safe Childhood, a Justice Department program that combats child sex trafficking.

According to the UNLV Center for Crime and Justice Policy, Nevada is ninth in the nation for most human trafficking cases, reporting 199 cases in a single year. In Nevada, sex trafficking is the most common form of trafficking, comprising 89% of trafficking cases in the state. This is higher than the national percentage of sex trafficking cases, where 71% of total trafficking cases are centered around selling sex.

The Sierra Sun Times emphasizes that the case was brought forward through Project Safe Childhood, an initiative by the Department of Justice to end child sex trafficking. For more information on the initiative, click here.