Cameron Knight, and Kevin Grasha

Cincinnati

It all started innocently enough. A girl and a boy having a conversation on Facebook.

He messaged her. She thought he was cute, so she messaged him back.

From there, prosecutors say, the then-14-year-old Mason girl fell into the snare of a then-19-year-old man who was on a "nationwide spree of sexual misconduct,'' that included at least 15 other teenage girls, whom he held captive for months at a time. Three of his victims, including the Mason teen, bore his children.

Cody Jackson, 21, pleaded guilty to four counts of unlawful sexual conduct with a minor and one count of interference with custody Tuesday. Both sides agreed to a 7½-year prison sentence, which was the maximum allowable on those charges. He faces an additional 1½ years after pleading guilty in a separate case. Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge Jerome Metz is expected to sentence him in June.

Among his victims was the Mason girl who said Jackson held her captive in a Norwood apartment for four months, officials said.

Jackson also faces charges in federal court, including child pornography and coercion and enticement of a minor to engage in sex. He's scheduled to enter a guilty plea on May 5. The coercion charge alone is punishable by up to life in prison.

His repeated method, prosecutors said: Controlling and dominating the girls through fear and intimidation and then sexually exploiting them.

Jackson, who court documents say was unemployed, traveled across the country at will. Prosecutors said his father, a Wisconsin resident, wired him money. He met the girls online through sites like Facebook and MeetMe.com, according to court documents.

Girl held captive 4 months in Norwood

The Mason girl, now 16, watched in the courtroom Tuesday.

“He messaged me, and I thought he was cute, so I messaged him back,” she told The Enquirer.

At the time, she was a rebellious freshman with a shaved head.

“Ever since I was about 12, I’ve been a troublemaker,” she acknowledged. Her mother was in and out of her life. As a result, her father gave her a long leash.

She’s said she's still healing from those four months in 2015. She said Jackson beat her, threatened to kill her and controlled her every move.

“I was naive. I didn’t really know anything. I was a baby,” she said of when she met Jackson in person on Feb. 8, 2015. “I just believed everything he told me, and I trusted him. I thought I was in love, but that’s not love.”

Alleged pattern of Jackson's control

Prosecutors say Jackson would flatter his victims with attention and let them know he was willing to spend money on them.

“He has sex with them very quickly and then begins to control their lives,” Hamilton County Assistant Prosecutor Gus Leon said in a pretrial motion. “He takes them from their homes. He takes away their cell phones and/or controls all their access to social media. He forbids them from talking to any other males. He forbids them to leave his presence.”

With most of the girls, Leon said Jackson traveled with them from motel to motel, and would threaten to harm them or their families “to coerce them into not leaving.”

“He has sex with them constantly,” Leon said in the documents.

The Mason girl was not his first victim. In August 2014, when Jackson was 18, a woman and a girl contacted Blue Ash police, saying he was holding them against their will at a Blue Ash hotel.

They told police they had traveled across the country with Jackson voluntarily, at first. But he became “abusive and controlling and would not let them leave,” court documents say.

Jackson was charged with abduction and kidnapping, but records show he wasn’t arrested until January 2015. On Jan. 16, 2015, Hamilton County Magistrate Michael Bachmann set his bond at $100,000. The same day, records show Jackson posted that full amount and was released on the condition he wear an electronic device that tracked his location.

According to court documents, Jackson was out on bond, living in an apartment in Norwood that his father rented, when he contacted the Mason girl through Facebook.

His Facebook account, the documents say, was “Cody Idfwu Jackson.”

Spiraling into control

The teen said she knew he had been in trouble, but didn’t know why.

He would send taxis to pick her up after school. She said she would lie to her father and tell him she was with friends.

Then Jackson got controlling. She said she would have to call him from school. He didn’t allow her to wear makeup or tight jeans.

“I did what he wanted me to do because it didn’t really affect me any,” she said.

By March 2015, Jackson would not allow the girl to return home, she said. She couldn’t leave the apartment unless it was with him or at his direction. Court documents say Jackson destroyed the girl’s cellphone and bought her another one for her to use. He also changed the password for her Facebook account and the email address connected to it, the documents say, so only he could access it.

He instituted numerous rules, according to court documents, including:

No eye contact or talking to other men

No sleeping while Jackson was awake

No using the bathroom, showering or eating unless given permission

No denying sex to Jackson

No looking out windows and doors

In addition, the bathroom doors were removed.

Jackson eventually brought another woman, who was 20 and the mother of one Jackson’s children, to the apartment to watch over the Mason girl. He ordered the woman, documents say, to take her out of the apartment and sometimes out of town to avoid being detected when officials checked on him.

The girl said she was kept in a closet at times.

She said Jackson made her call her father to tell her she was safe. Jackson took her phone and pretended to be her when people would send text messages out of concern, she said.

The violence grew. She said she was beaten any time she mentioned going home.

On April 14, 2015 she said she learned she was pregnant.

“I was terrified,” she said. “I remember laying on the floor screaming while he stared at me.”

Between bouts of cruelty, she said Jackson would tell her about moving away and having a family together.

“It looked so sincere in his eyes,” she said. “How could you do that to somebody and expect them to love you and want the same thing as you?”

The one-bedroom apartment had additional beds in the living room and dining room for people Jackson moved in. She said it was plagued with bedbugs.

“He tried bombing it, and the guy said that since I was pregnant I wasn’t allowed to be in the apartment for at least three days,” she said. “But Cody didn’t care. I had to sit in there with all the fumes and everything.”

The one time that she thought Cody was going to let her leave, it turned out he was only toying with her.

“I told Cody I wanted to leave and he pointed to the door,” she said. “I ran to the door and opened it and he was right there before I could even get a breath of fresh air. He smashed my head in between the door hinge maybe 10 times then dragged me in my bedroom.”

She said when he hit her, she would cover her stomach to protect the baby, but Cody would force her to raise her arms.

Escaping the apartment

Jackson’s GPS ankle unit was removed after he pleaded guilty to lesser charges in the kidnapping case, according to court documents. He left the apartment, but threatened to come back every 30 minutes. When he didn’t come back for an entire night, the teen decided to run.

It was the last few days of July. She said she borrowed a phone from the landlord and reached out to her brother. They were able to meet at Deer Park High School, and her brother took her to a couple she considers her grandparents, trusted family friends she lived next to growing up.

Once safe, she had to call her dad.

"He didn’t know what to say,” she said. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen pain in somebody’s eyes like that.”

Her father had been in contact with police. Because of her past, she had a probation officer who also issued a warrant for her arrest. Her dad found Jackson's address written down in her room.

The teen said she remembered someone knocking at the door while she was being hidden. She said the men asked if Jackson was there, but when they were told he wasn't home, they just left.

She spent the next few months in protective custody. Jackson was on the run. He wouldn't be arrested until October when he was captured in Utah.

“That was a major relief for me because I knew me and my baby would be safe,” the teen said, but even after Jackson's arrest she said he was still able to reach her.

She claimed he was able to call her from prison and send her letters. She said he would talk like they were still in a relationship, but also made threats.

“If you do this, you know what I would have to do,” she said Jackson would tell her.

A semblance of a normal life

Since Jackson's arrest, the teen said she's had trouble making friends and talking to strangers. She said even going to gas stations was hard at first. Counseling is helping.

She is continuing her school and hopes to graduate on time. She's looking for a job and spending the rest of her time raising her son. She wants to be a veterarian and move to New York.

“I feel like I’m in power now, and he can’t do anything to me,” she said. She wants her story to serve as a warning to other young girls who think about meeting men they have talked to online.

“I think about it as if it wasn’t me, and it was another 14-year-old, and it breaks my heart," she said.

She doesn't want her son to meet Jackson, but said "maybe when he’s 18, that’s his own choice to make.”

What she doesn't know is what to say him in the meantime.

"He saved my life... I’ve been a troublemaker, but since I had [him], I’ve really locked down and focused on being a mother and doing everything I can for him," she said. “What if my little 5-year-old comes up to me one day and asks me where his dad is? I have no idea what I’m going to tell him.”