ATF gun case includes report of sex trafficking at UNT dormitory

A 28-year-old man indicted Wednesday on federal charges of illegally possessing guns from Croatia also is the subject of a former University of North Texas student’s complaint that he forced her into prostitution.

Joshua William Jackson of Houston was indicted on one count of illegal receipt of a firearm after law enforcement officers found two semiautomatic pistols in his bedroom in Wichita Falls last month.

Jackson was on felony probation in a theft case in Fort Bend County and is forbidden to have firearms, Special Agent Matthew Belew of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives wrote in the federal complaint.

During an April 27 raid on a house in Wichita Falls, officials found two Springfield Armory pistols on the floor close to his wallet, which had his driver’s license and Social Security card in it, according to the complaint. Agents also found numerous rounds of .45 ACP, 9mm and .380 caliber ammunition in the living room.

Three women at the house were “detained and identified for safety purposes,” after agents with the ATF, Wichita Falls police and Homeland Security searched the residence.

In February, the Tarrant County district attorney’s office told officers with the North Texas Trafficking Task Force that a woman had accused Jackson of “using force, fraud and coercion to cause her to engage in commercial sex acts over an extended period of time.”

She told authorities that she enrolled at the University of North Texas when she was 18, in September 2012. She said she met Jackson at an anime convention in Dallas. He was living in Houston and came to visit the woman at her UNT dorm in October 2012 and then just moved in, she said.

He then used “various methods to coerce and manipulate” the woman to engage in sex acts from February to May 2013, according to the complaint.

In June, Jackson set a rate for her to charge clients and told her to give him the proceeds. The rate increased in January 2014, according to the complaint.

She told police that Jackson threatened her with guns, including one time, in December 2015, when he pointed a pistol at her and threatened to kill her mother, father, brother and nephew.

He threatened to pistol-whip her, and “she had nowhere to run because he would find and sell her,” the complaint states.

The woman said she broke free of Jackson in January, according to the complaint.

It could not be learned whether Jackson faces charges on the woman’s sex-trafficking complaint. A spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office would say only that the case is in federal jurisdiction, and “both charges are with the U.S. attorney’s office.”

ATF and Wichita police spokesmen declined to comment, and the U.S. attorney’s spokeswoman did return a message seeking clarification.

UNT policy limits guest stays in residence halls to three days, UNT spokeswoman Margarita Venegas wrote in an email.

“The alleged perpetrator in this incident has never been affiliated with UNT,” Venegas said.

After his arrest in April, Jackson told agents that he got a friend to buy four pistols for him because he was on state felony probation for a theft case in Fort Bend County.

The guns, which were manufactured in Croatia, were shipped or transported previously in interstate or foreign commerce.

This story was originally published May 19, 2016 at 10:30 PM with the headline "ATF gun case includes report of sex trafficking at UNT dormitory."