Fontana man sentenced for sex trafficking underage girl from Santa Barbara County

RIVERSIDE, Calif. -- The United States Department of Justice announced Tuesday that a Fontana man has been sentenced for sex trafficking an underage girl from Santa Barbara County.

Jason Dee Taylor, 42, was sentenced to more than 11 years in federal prison for paying a teenager he met on the internet to have sex with him on two occasions.

U.S. District Judge Jesus G. Bernal sentenced Taylor and also ordered him to pay $3,508 in restitution to the victim.

The four-day-long trial in November of 2021 resulted with a federal jury finding Taylor guilty of one count of sex trafficking of a minor and one count of enticement of a minor to engage in criminal sexual activity, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

The Department said Taylor first contacted the teenager on a public website, and then after exchanging messages they switched to Instagram messenger.

The underage girl first told Taylor she was 19 years old, but then almost immediately told him she was actually 16, when really she was 15 years old at the time.

In response to her message claiming she was 16 years old, Taylor said "I’ll be honest. I like your age, it’s kinda hot.”

Taylor drove to Santa Barbara County twice in April of 2020 where he picked up the girl, took her to a hotel, and paid her a total of $600 for sex, according to U.S. Attorney Tracy L. Wilkinson.

Within the same month these exchanges took place, the victim's family friend found the messages between Taylor and the girl.

Taylor deleted his Instagram account after a member of the teenage girl's family messaged him saying they were going to report him to law enforcement.

However, the family friend who first saw the messages had already taken screenshots of the incriminating conversations.

During the trial, Taylor's prosecutors argued that "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," but that "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.”

This case was investigated by the FBI, with the assistance of the Guadalupe Police Department, the Santa Maria Police Department and the Fontana Police Department.