Trigger Warning: Child Sexual Abuse
Man Pleads Guilty to 7 Child Sex Abuse Felonies for Assaulting Norfolk Child
NORFOLK, Va. — Jamal D’Angelo Jackson, 35, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to seven felony child sexual abuse offenses that he committed in Norfolk between 2019 and 2020 against a child who was less than 10 years old at the time. Mr. Jackson’s plea agreement included facts from cases against Mr. Jackson in Maryland and Washington D.C. for similar crimes he committed between 2015-2017 and in 2020.
Mr. Jackson met the Norfolk victim’s family in Maryland in 2013. Mr. Jackson became a close family friend and lived with the family on and off through July 2020. The victim reported Mr. Jackson’s abuse in a forensic interview with police in October 2020. After Mr. Jackson was arrested in Maryland for his charges pending there, he was extradited to Norfolk in January 2022.
Norfolk investigators charged Mr. Jackson with one count of aggravated sexual battery of a child, two counts of taking indecent liberties with a child, and one count of sodomy of a child. In December 2022, the Norfolk Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office secured direct indictments from a grand jury against Mr. Jackson for three additional counts of sodomy of a child after the victim opened up about more instances of Mr. Jackson’s abuse.
On Tuesday, Mr. Jackson entered an agreement to plead guilty to his seven charges. In exchange for Mr. Jackson’s guilty pleas in Norfolk, which included the facts from his other pending charges, state prosecutors in Maryland and federal prosecutors in Washington D.C. have agreed to dismiss those pending charges. Judge David W. Lannetti accepted Mr. Jackson’s plea agreement, in which there is no agreement to his sentence, and will hear arguments for Mr. Jackson’s sentence on Jan. 10, 2025.
“Mr. Jackson abused the innocence of a child for his own gratification, and he abused the trust of the child’s family by pretending to be someone there to help, not harm,” said Commonwealth’s Attorney Ramin Fatehi. “Mr. Jackson’s guilty plea here is the product of teamwork among three jurisdictions, and the sentence that we seek in Norfolk will reflect the gravity of Mr. Jackson’s crimes as a whole.”
Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorneys Stephanie G. Johnson, George M. Afentakis, and Abigail L. Ottinger are prosecuting Mr. Jackson’s case, and Norfolk Police Detective Darren B. O’Connor led the investigation.
If you have or someone you love has fallen victim to crime, including but not limited to child abuse, resources are available at the Norfolk Family Justice Center. For more information, please visit norfolkfjc.org, call 757-330-0376 or stop by the NFJC inside the Park Place Multi-Services Center at 606 W. 29th St., between 8:30 a.m. and 4 p.m. on weekdays. If you are in crisis, call the 24/7 hotline by dialing 757-251-0144. In an emergency, please call 911.
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