A Reston man has been sentenced by a federal judge to nearly two decades in prison for preying on teens he encountered online — more than three years after Fairfax County courts dismissed similar charges against him.
Xavier Dejuan Jackson, 28, was sentenced to 19 years in prison by U.S. District Judge Michael S. Nachmanoff in Alexandria today (Thursday) after he pleaded guilty last year to sexually exploiting a child, transporting minors and attempting to coerce a minor to engage in illegal sexual activity, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia announced.
According to court documents, Jackson was arrested on July 1, 2024 after his flight from London landed at Dulles International Airport. When inspecting his cell phone, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers came across multiple videos and photos showing a girl who appeared to be underage engaging in sexually explicit conduct.
Jackson had been singled out by CBP for an inspection, because he matched an alert identifying him as someone “at high risk” of possessing child pornography materials, a Department of Homeland Security special agent said in an affidavit.
Per the affidavit, Jackson was one of 30 people arrested in April 2020 by the Fairfax County Police Department as part of a child predator sting operation dubbed “COVID Crackdown.”
“Jackson was arrested and charged for computer solicitation of a child between 7 and 15 years old and indecent liberties: attempted/proposed fondling,” the affidavit says.
According to Fairfax County Circuit Court records, Jackson was indicted by a grand jury in October 2020, and a criminal trial with a jury was held at 10 a.m. on Jan. 10, 2022. The trial was scheduled to last two days, but instead, after an hour, both charges were dismissed.
“What happened in this situation is that [a] key witness was unavailable for trial,” a spokesperson for the Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office told FFXnow.
The assistant commonwealth’s attorney who was prosecuting the case first requested that the trial be continued at a future date before moving to nolle prosequi, which would’ve dropped the case but allowed the charges to be reintroduced in the future.
After the judge denied both proposals, the prosecutor moved to dismiss the case, which was approved without objection from the defense attorney, according to a court order. Jackson, already out on bond, was immediately released from the case.
According to federal court records, investigators found images and videos on Jackson’s cell phone showing two different teen girls and were produced between January and March 2024.
From the U.S. Attorney’s Office press release:
Jackson met Minor Victim 1 on a social media application in January 2024. Minor Victim 1 revealed to Jackson she lived with her parents, attended high school, and was 17 years old. On various occasions, Jackson transported Minor Victim 1 across state lines to engage in sexual activity with him. Beginning on Jan. 16, 2024, Jackson repeatedly traveled to Maryland to pick up Minor Victim 1 and transported her 40 minutes to his apartment in Reston to engage in sexual activity with him. Each time Jackson engaged in sexual activity with Minor Victim 1, he recorded his exploitation of her on his cellphone. Jackson then distributed the videos to Minor Victim 1 via Snapchat.
In February 2024, Jackson began communicating with Minor Victim 2 on Instagram. On March 1, 2024, Minor Victim 2 informed Jackson she was 14 years old. When Minor Victim 2 asked how old he suspected she was, Jackson replied, “Like 17 maybe 16 but that was a stretch and ya it’s not too hard when you know what to look for.”
After Minor Victim 2 revealed her age, Jackson resumed sexually explicit conversations with her. Jackson requested that Minor Victim 2 produce for and send to him explicit videos and directed her in what he wanted her to say and how he wanted her to expose herself. Jackson received these videos via Snapchat and stored them in a folder under the victim’s name. Also stored within that folder were three videos depicting Minor Victim 2 engaged in sexual activity.
On March 2, 2024, Jackson asked Minor Victim 2 to meet in person for sexual activity. Over the next several days, the two discussed potential opportunities. Minor Victim 2 expressed fear of embarrassing herself, but Jackson persisted. Jackson pressed Minor Victim 2 for her address. Jackson continued to engage in sexually explicit messages and exchange sexually explicit photos with Minor Victim 2. They discussed locations Jackson could pick up Minor Victim 2, including her specific high school or a mall near her parent’s house.
On June 23, 2024, Minor Victim 2 asked Jackson when he would next be available to meet up for sexual activity. He responded that it would be over a week because he would be out of the country. He was arrested on July 1, 2024, after his return flight to Dulles.
According to a statement of facts, Jackson’s phone also had sexually explicit videos saved on March 25, 2024 of a teen he had first contacted that February through SnapChat. The teen told Jackson that she was 15 years old, though investigators later determined that she was actually 19. Jackson told her he was 19 but was 28 at the time, prosecutors said.
Jackson was indicted by a grand jury in Alexandria on Sept. 26, 2024 on three counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, transportation of a minor, travel with the intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct, attempted coercion of a minor, transportation of child porn and three counts of child porn possession.
Jackson pleaded guilty on Nov. 21, 2024 to two of the sexual exploitation charges, transporting a minor and attempted coercion. He admitted that the facts laid out by prosecutors were true and would’ve been proven beyond a reasonable doubt if the case went to trial, according to the plea agreement.
In addition to a 19-year prison term, Jackson’s sentence includes a lifetime of supervised release, the U.S. Attorney’s Office says.
