CHICAGO _ Austin Jones, who rose to internet stardom with songs that hinted at his own traumatic childhood, was sentenced to 10 years in prison Friday for coercing underage girls to perform sexually explicit dances during live online chats.
Prosecutors had sought an 11-year prison sentence for Jones, 26, following his guilty plea in February to child pornography charges in Chicago's federal court. The resident of west suburban Bloomingdale admitted he persuaded six underage girls _ 14 to 15 at the time _ to make sexually explicit videos for him while attempting to coerce as many as 30 others as well.
"He preyed on their youth, their vulnerabilities and most glaringly, their adoration of him, and he did it over and over again," prosecutors said in a court filing last week. "He coached the girls on what to wear, what to say, how to dance and what to do in the videos."
Jones' lawyers, who asked for the minimum possible sentence of five years in prison, laid out in graphic terms Jones' complicated past, including allegations of years of childhood sexual abuse at the hands of his alcoholic, cocaine-abusing father, now deceased.
"There can be no question that the systematic devastation of Mr. Jones' psyche at the hands of his father at such an impressionable age helped create the conditions in which Mr. Jones acted in the manner that he did," Jones' attorneys wrote in a sentencing memo.
Jones rose to fame in a particularly 21st-century fashion, attracting online fans _ many on YouTube _ with music he mostly recorded in his living room and promoted on social media. At the height of his popularity, he had hundred of thousands of followers and toured around the world.
But his superstar status crumbled after authorities unearthed dozens of sexually explicit online chats with underage girls, some lasting hours. He would often coax them to take off their clothes and dance suggestively on video, sometimes instructing them to talk about their young age as they performed while promising modeling opportunities, Instagram stardom and his valuable attention.
Jones was arrested at O'Hare International Airport in June 2017 as he returned on a flight from performing in Poland. In a recorded confession, he admitted soliciting explicit videos from his underage fans.
In one example in prosecutors' filing, Jones was quoted as asking one victim if she felt "special" because "out of all my fans, I picked you for this opportunity?"
The victim responded by saying she felt as if she was "dreaming," prosecutors said.
Another victim who was dancing for Jones said she might have to finish the next day "because I have school in the morning," according to prosecutors.
Jones responded that they would do five more videos, prompting the girl to ask, "tomorrow, right?"
"No, right now. Then we do the rest tomorrow," prosecutors quoted Jones as saying. "I'm taking a huge chance on you. And you don't even seem like you want it."
The defense centered much of its argument for mercy on Jones' own history as an alleged victim of abuse, saying it provides the proper context for his later misconduct.
In the months after his arrest, Jones alleged that his father repeatedly molested him between the ages of 6 and 10, according to the defense filing. The ensuing "emotional trauma and chaos ... has consumed his life," they wrote, leading to severe depression, low self-esteem, sexual dysfunction and difficulty sleeping since the age of 11.
His music provided an outlet for his anxiety and depression, Jones said, and his fan base responded in kind, telling him about their own experiences with self-harm and abuse.
"His lyrics expose the depth of his pain and extent of his struggles," his attorneys wrote. "Listening to his music you can hear his cries for help and his desperate self-yearning to understand what was wrong with him. His song titled, 'Damaged Goods,' says it all."
Prosecutors acknowledged that Jones' experiences affected his mental health but noted that works both ways: having been abused, he still "inflicted the same harms upon a new generation of victims" despite having "a unique appreciation" for the damage he would cause, they said.
And Jones knew just how to manipulate his vulnerable fans into performing the lewd acts for him, preying on their naivete and their own mental health issues or insecurities, prosecutors said.
One victim's mother wrote in a victim-impact statement that Jones was "a parent's worst nightmare."
"What happens when your child thinks she can trust someone that, to her, isn't a stranger? She knows almost everything there is to know about him, watches his videos, comments and follows him on social media," the mother wrote.
"Then one day she gets a message from him asking her to prove she is his biggest fan by doing inappropriate things. ... He knew these young girls would do anything for him and sought them out of everyone specifically for this reason."
