Man Who Conspired to Traffic Child From Behind Bars Sentenced to More Than 15 Years

A Dallas man who coordinated the trafficking of a 17-year-old girl was sentenced on April 9, 2025, to more than 15 years in federal prison, announced Acting United States Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Chad E. Meacham.

Christopher Jabar Jenkins, 33, was indicted in August 2023 and pleaded guilty in October 2024 to one count of conspiracy to commit sex trafficking.  He was sentenced Wednesday to 188 months in federal prison by U.S. District Judge Karen Gren Scholer, to be followed by 35 years of supervised release.  Jenkins was also ordered to pay $82,300 in restitution to the victim.  

According to plea papers, Jenkins admitted that between July 2022 and November 2022, he advertised the 17-year-old victim’s sexual services on commercial sex websites.  He also rented hotel rooms for commercial sex dates and negotiated with patrons.

In an interview with the child, it was revealed that Jenkins physically assaulted her, threatened her at gunpoint, forced her to “brand” herself with a tattoo to indicate his ownership of her, and kept her identification as a way to ensure that she could not leave him.

At the sentencing hearing, prosecutors described how the child was forced to work seven days a week, up to fourteen-hour days, and Jenkins took all of the resulting proceeds for himself.

According to court documents, when Jenkins was arrested in September 2022 for unrelated charges, he passed the victim off to another trafficker.  Jenkins continued to traffic the victim while in jail.  During the recorded calls, Jenkins instructed the victim to continue participating in commercial sex acts.  He also coordinated with other coconspirators regarding the pricing, advertisements, work hours, travel, and other logistics to ensure the success of the criminal enterprise.  Jenkins specifically instructed a coconspirator to collect all of the money that the minor victim earned and to set it aside for him or add funds to his jail commissary account.  Records confirmed that an individual deposited money to Jenkins’ jail commissary account no less than seven times from September 13 to September 29, 2022.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation conducted the investigation, with invaluable assistance from the Texas Department of Public Safety.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Michelle A. Winters prosecuted the case.