A federal jury in Portland found a Vancouver man guilty Friday in a teen sex-trafficking scheme, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
The jury returned guilty verdicts against Johnl Jackson, 34, to one count of conspiracy to engage in sex trafficking; three counts of sex trafficking of a child; two counts of sex trafficking by force, fraud and coercion; and three counts of transportation of a minor with intent to engage in sexual activity, according to a Department of Justice news release.
He is scheduled to be sentenced June 6 and faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.
“Trafficking in human lives is a despicable crime, here made worse by Johnl Jackson’s exploitation of young women for profit,” U.S. Attorney for the District of Oregon Scott Erik Asphaug said in the news release. “Sex trafficking minors has a profoundly negative impact on survivors and their loved ones.”
To Get Help
For help, call the National Human Trafficking Resource Center at 1-888-373-7888 or text 233733. Calls and texts are answered 24/7.
In 2016, Jackson began coaching Keonte Desmond Scott, 23, also of Vancouver, on how to traffic another Vancouver resident, Diana Petrovic, 23, according to the news release. Then, the pair began using Petrovic to recruit and traffic girls.
By 2019, several girls reported to law enforcement they were trafficked by Scott and Petrovic, the Department of Justice said. A 14-year-old and 15-year-old who ran away from their homes in Lane County, Ore., said they met the pair at a mall in Vancouver.
Scott and Petrovic gave the girls drugs and alcohol and later took them somewhere in Portland to be sold for sex. The girls eventually escaped and made it back home, the news release said.
In summer 2018, Scott went to prison, and Petrovic began working with Jackson. Petrovic stayed in contact with one of the Lane County girls on social media and convinced her to meet up.
When Jackson, Petrovic and another woman arrived in Eugene, Ore., to pick up the girl, she was with a 15-year-old friend, the news release states.
The group brought the teens to houses in Vancouver and Battle Ground, where they gave them drugs and sold them for sex, according to the Department of Justice. Jackson and Petrovic told the girls to say they were 19 years old if anyone asked.
One girl escaped that night, and Jackson and Petrovic took the other girl to a hotel near the Portland International Airport, the news release states. She escaped a few days later while the pair were sleeping.
The Department of Justice said Jackson, Petrovic, Scott and an accomplice were all indicted in 2019 on various sex-trafficking charges.
Petrovic pleaded guilty in 2020 to distributing a controlled substance to a person younger than 21; she is scheduled to be sentenced in April 2023. In December, Scott pleaded guilty to two counts of sex trafficking. He is set to be sentenced April 13.
