Alabama Man Sentenced to Prison for Taking 14-Year-Old Girl
| U.S. Attorney’s Office July 16, 2009 |
SPOKANE, WA—James A. McDevitt, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Washington, announced that Morgan Douglas Jones, age 28, of Birmingham, Alabama, was sentenced this Tuesday to nine years (108 months) in federal prison for traveling from Alabama to Washington to have illegal sex with a 14-year-old girl. He will be under court supervision for 50 years after he is released from prison, be required to register as a sex offender, and was ordered to pay over $4,000 in restitution for victim counseling.
Morgan Douglas Jones developed a relationship with the 14-year-old Boise, Idaho resident by playing the game World of Warcraft over the Internet. This game is an interactive dungeons and dragons theme-type game that allows users to communicate with each other in real time, online. In early 2008, Morgan Douglas Jones, then a pharmacist technician, began grooming the 14-year-old to have a sexual relationship with him and culminated in his travel to Boise, Idaho on May 28, 2008. He encouraged and convinced her to run away with him. Initially, she was reported as a runaway. They were found and he was arrested on June 2, 2008, at the Palouse Falls State Park in Washington State. He repeatedly had sexual intercourse with the victim during his travel and provided her with alcohol and prescription drugs.
James A. McDevitt, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Washington, said, “With all its benefits, the Internet unfortunately has provided another tool for sexual predators to prey on insecure juveniles—those who are too immature to make life altering, adult decisions. I commend our law enforcement partners for networking so effectively and efficiently.”
This investigation was conducted by the Boise Police Department, the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office, the Kennewick Police Department, the Birmingham Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. This case was prosecuted by Stephanie Van Marter, Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Washington.