Smithfield sex trafficker who claimed magical powers sentenced for ‘modern-day slavery’
A Smithfield man convicted of sex-trafficking crimes likened to “modern-day slavery” was sentenced Wednesday to three consecutive life sentences in prison.
Jonathan Lynn Jenkins, 48, was convicted by a jury in March. He lured young, vulnerable victims with promises of food, shelter and a better life and then exploited and abused them, according to federal prosecutors.
Jenkins and a co-conspirator prostituted these victims, including minors, between November 2014 and October 2015, the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Eastern District of North Carolina stated in a news release.
His crimes included conspiracy to commit sex trafficking by force, fraud, or coercion; sex trafficking of a minor; using the internet to promote a prostitution business enterprise; and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.
He would beat and choke his victims, emotionally and psychologically abuse them, and sexually assault them, prosecutors said. He also tried to kill a man who helped one of his victims escape.
Jenkins also claimed to have magical powers that would allow him to track down and kill any of his victims who escaped.
U.S. District Judge James Dever III called Jenkins “an extraordinarily dangerous human being,” who committed a “form of modern-day slavery.”
He has been ordered to pay at least $418,361.70 in restitution to his victims, according to the release.
Prior murder conviction, charges
In 2006, Jenkins pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the killing of Joseph Richard Vestal at Clayton Estates Mobile Home Park, The News & Observer reported. He served nearly eight years in prison, and was released in 2014.
Just two years later, while in custody on sex trafficking charges, Clayton police interviewed Jenkins and charged him with murder in a 17-year-old case, The N&O reported.
In 1999, Elton Demond Whitfield’s body was found in a field in Wake County one month after he went missing from Clayton. Whitfield and Jenkins knew one another, police said.
First-degree murder charges remain pending against Jenkins in Johnston County, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said Wednesday.
