BOSTON – A Washington man pleaded guilty yesterday in federal court in Boston to coercion and enticement of a minor.
Jabarie Phillips, a/k/a Jabarie Lindsey, 44, of Seattle, Wash., pleaded guilty to one count of coercion and enticement of a minor before U.S. Senior District Court Judge George A. O’Toole Jr. who scheduled sentencing for Sept. 8, 2022. Phillips was charged in May 2019.
In April 2019, Phillips and a 14-year-old middle-school girl from Massachusetts began communicating via Facebook. Phillips, knowing the girl’s age, repeatedly asked her to take sexually explicit videos and photos of herself for him to view. During their communications, the minor told Phillips that she had issues with her family, to which Phillips responded, “If you run away let me know we can take this show on the road I need a partner in crime.” After communicating online with the girl, Phillips flew from Washington to Boston. On April 29, 2019, the girl met Phillips at Logan Airport, and then they traveled together to South Station to catch a bus to Seattle, Wash.
On May 3, 2019, authorities intercepted the bus in Minneapolis, Minn. where they arrested Phillips and recovered the girl. Phillips was arrested on two warrants – one out of Washington for violating probation following his release from prison for a 2008 conviction for manslaughter and one out of Massachusetts for kidnapping.
The charge of coercion and enticement of a minor provides for a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years and up to life in prison, at least five years and up to a lifetime of supervised release and a fine of $250,000. Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based upon the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and statutes which govern the determination of a sentence in a criminal case.
United States Attorney Rachael S. Rollins; Joseph R. Bonavolonta, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Division; Bristol County District Attorney Thomas Quinn; and police departments in Southeastern Massachusetts made the announcement today. Assistant U.S. Attorney Suzanne Sullivan Jacobus of Rollins’ Major Crimes Unit is prosecuting the case.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse, launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the DOJ’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children, as well as identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit https://www.justice.gov/psc.