Two men from North Texas were recently sentenced to decades in prison for crimes related to the sexual exploitation of children.
Dallas resident Justin Mark Jones, 35, pled guilty to “attempted coercion and enticement of a minor.” He received a 10-year sentence on August 27, according to a press release by U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Texas.
The Plano Police Department and the FBI-Dallas Crimes Against Children Human Trafficking Task Force had started investigating Jones after discovering that he had been “communicating online with an individual he believed to be a 13-year-old minor.”
Sexually explicit discussions between Jones and the child occurred over the course of several months.
“On May 17, 2023, Jones traveled to a location in Plano to meet the child and to engage in illegal sex. Jones arrived with a backpack containing sexual objects and condoms,” the press release reads. He was arrested not long after.
In a separate case, Eric Victor Henry Blood, 44, a resident of Carrollton, was sentenced to 20 years in prison after being convicted on “three counts of transportation of child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography,” according to the press release.
Homeland Security Investigations looked into Blood after receiving a tip from an internet services platform.
“Agents located child pornography files on multiple electronic devices he owned and possessed, including depictions of prepubescent minors and the violent sexual abuse of minors,” the press release reads.
Both Jones and Blood were sentenced on August 27.
In Dallas, of the 443 sexual assaults that have taken place this year as of September 2, some 195 were committed against an individual under the age of 18, according to the City of Dallas victim demographics dashboard.
The Dallas Police Department has been laboring under a significant staffing shortage. Although a City report looking at public safety needs by population advised that Dallas needs roughly 4,000 officers, DPD only fields around 3,000.
DPD also lacks funding compared to other high-crime jurisdictions. Officials in New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago have allocated far higher sums to police this fiscal year than the Dallas City Council, which approved a DPD budget of just $654 million.