Hendersonville man gets maximum sentence of 330 years for human trafficking

Staff reports
·2 min read
7

HENDERSONVILLE - A Hendersonville man was found guilty of three counts of human trafficking of a child, three counts of statutory rape and two counts of statutory sex offense and received a combined minimum sentence of 241 years and a maximum sentence of 330 years, according to a news release from District Attorney Andrew Murray, who serves the counties of Henderson, Transylvania and Polk.

Superior Court Judge William Coward presided over the trail on May 18 and handed down the sentence to 55-year-old Jimmy Jamison.

Gavel
Gavel

According to court trial records, the victim moved to Rutherford County to live with her third cousin, Lee Ann Zimmerman, 55, when the child was 13 years old. After the victim turned 14, Zimmerman began taking her to various places in Henderson County to purchase illegal narcotics. On one trip with Zimmerman, Jamison saw the child and began sending text messages to Zimmerman, wanting to have sex with the victim.

After being told by Zimmerman that the victim was 14 years old, Jamison kept sending text messages, offering the child marijuana and money if she would have sex with him, according to court records.

Between the fall of 2019 and March 2020, Zimmerman drove the victim from Rutherford County to Henderson County multiple times to be supplied with illegal narcotics, where Jamison was permitted unsupervised access to the victim. During these times, Jamison committed multiple sexual crimes, court records said. These crimes occurred at the defendant’s residence in the Dana community of Henderson County and at a motel in the city of Hendersonville. This stopped in April 2020 when the victim told her stepsister what was happening to her, and authorities were alerted.

Zimmerman pled guilty in Superior Court to conspiracy to commit human trafficking and testified for the State concerning these charges. Zimmerman was also sentenced and received a minimum active sentence of 110 months (nine years), and a maximum sentence of 192 months (16 years) for her part in the human trafficking crime.

Assistant District Attorneys Doug Mundy and Beth Dierauf handled the prosecution and sentencing.

This article originally appeared on Hendersonville Times-News: Hendersonville man sentenced for human trafficking, statutory rape