Jimmy Jamison appears in a mugshot; in May 2023 he was convicted on six counts related to the rape and sex trafficking of a 14-year-old girl. (Henderson County Sheriff’s Office)
A North Carolina man will almost certainly die in prison after being convicted of child sex trafficking charges in a disturbing case that spanned years and involved a second defendant related to the victim.
Jimmy Jamison, 55, was found guilty on three counts of human trafficking of a child, three counts of statutory rape, and two counts of a statutory sex offense by jurors in the Tar Heel State last week, District Attorney R. Andrew Murray announced, according to various local media outlets. The defendant was then sentenced to spend at least 241 years behind bars – with a maximum sentence of 330 years.
According to records cited by Asheville-based ABC affiliate WLOS, the victim, who is not being named, moved to Rutherford County to live with her third cousin, Lee Ann Zimmerman, 55, when she was 13 years old. When the girl turned 14, Zimmerman took her cousin along for the ride when she often traveled to “various places in Henderson County to purchase illegal narcotics,” the DA’s office said.
During one such visit, the victim met her eventual sex trafficker.
Jamison developed an interest in the child and began texting Zimmerman and telling her that he wanted to have sex with the victim, trial records cited by the Hendersonville Lightning showed.
When Jamison learned the girl was underage, he continued texting Zimmerman and said he still wanted to have sex with the girl. He began “offering the child marijuana and money if she would have sex with him,” the DA’s press release reportedly says.
Eventually, the defendant was given access to the young girl on numerous occasions between the fall of 2019 and March 2020.
On those occasions, court records show, Zimmerman drove the girl from Rutherford County to Henderson County. The much older driver was supplied with drugs while the girl was left alone with her rapist. The DA’s press release reportedly says the older third cousin took the girl with her on “multiple times to be supplied with illegal narcotics, where the defendant, Jimmy Jamison, was permitted unsupervised access to the victim.”
Lee Ann Zimmerman appears in a mugshot; in May 2023 she pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit human trafficking for her role in her cousin’s rape and sex trafficking. (Henderson County Sheriff’s Office)
Jamison committed numerous sexual crimes against the girl at his home in the Dana community of Henderson County, authorities say. The abuse also occurred at a motel in Hendersonville, North Carolina – which is located roughly half an hour due south of Asheville by car.
Investigators learned about the sex trafficking arrangement after the victim told her stepsister who alerted authorities in April 2020, Spartanburg, South Carolina-based CBS affiliate WSPA reported.
Zimmerman previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit human trafficking and testified against Jamison during his trial. On Monday, she was sentenced to between 9 years and 16 years in state prison for her role in the girl’s abuse.
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