Montgomery man sentenced on federal child sex trafficking charge
A Montgomery man will spend more than 10 years in federal prison for the trafficking of a minor.
Jamecko Rontae Thomas, 45, was sentenced to 130 months in prison, said U.S. Attorney Jonathan S. Ross. Thomas’s sentence follows his entering a guilty plea for sex trafficking of a minor, court record show. During the Monday sentencing hearing, the judge also ordered that Thomas serve five years of supervised probation following the prison term. Federal prisoners are not eligible for parole.
According to his plea agreement and other court records, Thomas went to a Montgomery hotel in July 2021 to engage in a commercial sex act with a female who was under the age of 18 at the time, said Doug Howard, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Alabama.
A co-defendant arranged the encounter. When he pleaded guilty to sex trafficking of a minor, Thomas admitted that the sex act occurred with a “reckless” disregard for the child’s age, Howard said. Also, according to the plea agreement, Thomas admitted to both knowledge of past incidents of commercial sex acts arranged by his co-defendant and that he was aware of narcotics being used to induce sex trafficking victims.
“Sex trafficking is a terrible crime — one that scars its victims for a lifetime,” said Ross. “This prosecution should send a clear message that my office will hold all individuals accountable for their participation in child sex trafficking and child exploitation, whether they are the traffickers or merely patrons.”
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse that was launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office and the Montgomery Police Department investigated this case, with assistant United States Attorneys J. Patrick Lamb and Tara S. Ratz prosecuting.
Contact Montgomery Advertiser reporter Marty Roney at mroney@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Montgomery man sentenced on federal child sex trafficking charge
