BY DAN HILDEBRAN
Monitor Editor
STARKE— The U.S. Justice Department said District Judge Marcia Morales Howard sentenced Dawson Ladale Crews, 24, to 17 years and six months in federal prison for enticing a minor to engage in sexually explicit conduct to produce sexually explicit depictions.
According to court documents, in July 2020, the Clay County Sheriff’s Office received information that a purported “16-year-old” male offered a 12-year-old minor victim money in exchange for naked pictures and sexual acts. Deputies interviewed the minor and the reporting party. The agency learned that the victim met the male on a social media application, who was later determined to be Crews.
Deputies and Homeland Security Investigations agents searched Crews’ phones, which revealed sexually explicit images of the victim along with sexually explicit videos and pictures of a 16-year-old victim, whom Crews had solicited over the same social media app. The defendant used alias names to communicate with the 16-year-old and other underage girls to threaten them and coerce them to send him sexually explicit photos.
“With the popularity of today’s social media applications, savvy and dangerous online predators are often able to entice impressionable children into a false sense of security,” said Homeland Security Investigations Jacksonville Assistant Special Agent in Charge K. Jim Phillips. “This sentence is an unwavering example of how HSI and the Clay County Sheriff’s Office are committed to stop these deviant child molesters and hold them accountable.”
