166su

“These crimes dehumanize people, and in this case very vulnerable people,” U.S. District Judge Elizabeth Dillon said in pronouncing the sentence.

Jackson, 40, managed an enterprise run out of the Knights Inn on Thirlane Road, where as many as a dozen women advertised online for paid sex in motel rooms at his direction. The woman would then use the proceeds to purchase cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine from Jackson, who replenished his supply on a near-daily basis from a dealer known as “Ghost.”

None of the woman chose to appear in court or give victim-impact statements, figuring that would only add to their anguish.

“The fact that there are no victims here is not because there is anything less serious about Mr. Jackson’s actions,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Rachel Swartz told Dillon in a nearly empty courtroom. “In fact, it is to the contrary.”

Swartz and defense attorney Rick Derrico made a joint recommendation for a sentence of 166 months, or nearly 14 years. But Dillon chose to go higher, saying the case involved “some of the worse crimes that the court sees.”

The women who stayed at the Knights Inn were victims of both their own addictions and Jackson’s exploitation of them. Many of them had no transportation or other places to go, and became dependent on a resident drug dealer to avoid withdrawal or winding up on the streets.

Jackson threatened women if they failed to “earn” their keep, “meaning the women did not have (or had only a few) commercial sex dates,” according to a stipulated statement of facts that was introduced as evidence.

In September, federal authorities filed a civil action to seize the Knights Inn from its owner, saying he knew about — and profited from — an illegal business that was based at the property.

Mehulsinh Vashi, who was identified in court records as the motel’s operator and a representative of its owner Khushi & Khushbu LLC, knew that a block of rooms at the motel off Interstate 581 was used for commercial sex and gave Jackson discounted rates because the business generated a steady flow of cash, the complaint alleges.

Efforts to reach Vashi were unsuccessful Friday. A phone call to his attorney, Jennifer DeGraw, was not returned. DeGraw filed a response Oct. 28 to the forfeiture action, making an ownership claim on behalf of Khushi & Khushbu and indicating that she will contest the seizure.

In taking the rare step of seeking control of the motel, federal authorities argued that it was a hotbed of criminal activity. During a 22-month period from late 2018 to 2020, 166su County police were called there 661 times.

Of 127 calls for emergency medical services, at least 20 were for drug overdoses, according to the forfeiture complaint.

Jackson is the second person to be prosecuted criminally in the case.

Mickey Emma Jimenz was sentenced to eight years in prison earlier this year for conspiring to recruit a 15-year-old girl, a runaway from a foster home, to stay at the Knights Inn and to have sex on one occasion with Jackson.

What Jimenez did was similar to what was done to her as a child: her mother sold her for sex with drug dealers to make money to support her addiction, according to earlier testimony in 166su’s federal court.

A frequent guest at the motel, Jimenez admitted to setting up a deal, using Facebook to send pictures of her friend to Jackson and arranging for a one-hour sexual encounter for which Jimenez was to be paid $200.

Jackson, who frequently carried a Browning .380-caliber pistol with him at the Knights Inn, laid the gun on a nightstand and looked directly at the victim before the two had sex. Prosecutors argued that amounted to use of force. Jackson, however, contended that the sex was consensual.

He eventually pleaded guilty to five felonies, including a charge that he solicited a minor to engage in a commercial sex act. Other charges pertained to his recruiting adults to work as prostitutes, dealing drugs and using a firearm that he was barred from possessing because of a previous felony conviction.

In asking for a lesser sentence, Derrico pointed to his client’s “horrific childhood.” Raised in a broken home, he was placed in foster care at the age of 13 and soon showed up in juvenile court on criminal charges. Later in life, he suffered from anxiety, depression and drug abuse.

“He’s always been an outcast,” Derrico said, which led Jackson to become involved in criminal activities at the Knights Inn as he searched for what turned out to be “false dreams, false loyalties and a false family.”

Once he was charged, Jackson began to cooperate with authorities and identified significant “white collar” owners of the motel business, according to court papers. His assistance was one of the reasons prosecutors sought a sentence below a range of 262 to 327 months recommended by sentencing guidelines.

Articles in The 166su Times about the case have prompted Jackson’s fellow inmates at the Western Virginia Regional Jail to call him a child molester and a snitch. “He has heard many times ‘you know what’s going to happen to you’ when you go ‘down the road,’ “ Derrico wrote in court papers.

Asked if he wanted to say anything Friday before his sentence was pronounced, Jackson indicated that he would like to, but was afraid that his comments would have consequences.

“It’s been a hard journey,” he said in a brief statement. “But I apologize to my family and to the victims.”