A Fontana man who was found guilty of paying a 15-year-old girl he met online to have sex with him twice in Santa Barbara County was sentenced Monday to about 11 years in federal prison, federal prosecutors announced.
Jason Dee Taylor, 42, was sentenced to 136 months in prison by U.S. District Judge Jesus G. Bernal, the Department of Justice said in a news release. Taylor was also ordered to pay $3,508 in restitution to the victim, the release said.
In November 2021, Taylor was found guilty by a federal jury on one count of sex trafficking of a minor and one count of enticement of a minor to engage in criminal sexual activity.
“The minor victim was not a fully developed young woman with whom Taylor had sex in the heat of the moment, only to find out she was underage,” federal prosecutors said in a sentencing memorandum. “Rather, this was a case where Taylor looked for, found, and exploited a teenager who was willing to sell her body for money because that is what he wanted.”
Taylor contacted the victim through a public website’s messenger feature as well as Instagram messenger, the DOJ said. The victim initially said she was 19-years-old, but almost immediately revealed after that she was 16, despite being 15 at the time, prosecutors said.
In response, Taylor wrote, “I’ll be honest. I like your age, it’s kinda hot,” the DOJ said.
Taylor drove twice to Santa Barbara County in April 2020 and picked up the victim, took her to a hotel and paid her a total of $600 for sex, the release said.
Soon after, a family friend of the victim found the messages between Taylor and the victim. A family member of the victim shortly after sent Taylor a message alerting him that they were reporting him to law enforcement, authorities said. Despite Taylor deleting the Instagram account, the family friend had taken screenshots of the incriminating communications, the DOJ said.
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