Feds: Fort Worth pimp recruited teen for prostitution at area hotels

Henry David Jackson, who liked his employees branded with a crown tattoo, recruited the teen through Facebook, authorities say, and then paid for her bus ticket to Fort Worth.

When she arrived, Jackson informed the 17-year-old of her new job: He was a pimp, and she would be his prostitute, he said, according to a federal criminal complaint.

Jackson, 48, is accused of forcing the teen to earn at least $1,000 a day as a prostitute for about a month last year. She estimated she saw about 20 clients a day at area hotels, including the Omni Hotels in downtown Fort Worth and Dallas, according to the criminal complaint.

A federal grand jury indicted Jackson last week on three charges: sex trafficking of children; sex trafficking through force, fraud or coercion; and illegally possessing a firearm.

Federal authorities arrested Jackson last month, and U.S. District Court Magistrate Judge David L. Horan ordered him to remain in jail as he awaits trial. Jackson is being held at Kaufman County Jail, according to online records.

Samantha Rochelle Baker, another woman working for Jackson, is also accused in the case, according to a federal criminal complaint. She has not been indicted.

Federal agents were tipped off to Jackson by the 17-year-old, who contacted authorities in October, according to the criminal complaint.

The girl described Jackson as “violent and controlling,” and told agents she escaped from him while he was assaulting Baker, according to the complaint.

$1,000 a day

Jackson first contacted the girl on Facebook on Sept. 1, she told agents, according to the complaint.

Over the next week, he messaged her “to plan her run away from home,” the complaint stated. When Jackson learned the girl was a minor, he bought her a ticket for a Greyhound bus trip to Fort Worth, according to the complaint.

At Jackson’s home in Fort Worth, Baker gave her a new cellphone number and taught her how to prostitute, the girl told authorities.

Jackson and Baker posted advertisements for the girl to the website Backpage, listing her name as “Hydie” and using stock photos of a woman from another prostitution ad, according to the criminal complaint.

At first, Baker and the girl worked “dates” at the Omni Hotels in Fort Worth and Dallas, according to the criminal complaint. Jackson, the girl told authorities, required they earn at least $1,000 each day.

The girl told authorities that Jackson also took her to San Antonio and Las Vegas, stopping to prostitute at truck stops along the way, according to the complaint.

Crown ‘brand’

The girl told authorities that she wanted to leave Jackson multiple times.

But when she would ask to leave, Jackson would beat up Baker, slapping and punching the woman in the face until she cried, according to the complaint.

Authorities linked the advertisements on Backpage to Jackson and Baker, and they also discovered what they believed to be Jackson’s Facebook page, which was listed under the name “King Mac Hennessy.”

The Facebook page showed a picture of a crown tattoo on a woman’s leg, according to the complaint.

The girl told authorities that the crown was Jackson’s “brand” and that he liked to tattoo it on his prostitutes. The girl, according to the complaint, had a crown emblem on her fingernail during her interview with federal agents.

Jackson was convicted on a felony drug charge in Tarrant County in 1994, according to court records.

This story was originally published July 26, 2016 at 1:51 PM with the headline "Feds: Fort Worth pimp recruited teen for prostitution at area hotels."