James “Jake” Harrison Newcomer, the 29-year-old registered sex offender who cut off his electronic monitoring device before sexually exploiting more than a dozen children, was sentenced to 17 years in prison in U.S. District Court in Seattle Nov. 17, according to a news release from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).
Newcomer had been on state Department of Corrections (DOC) supervision in 2024 following a 30-month prison sentence for two counts of rape of a child. As part of his supervision, he was required to wear an ankle bracelet for monitoring.
On Jan. 19, 2024, the ankle monitor lost connection. Six days later, on Jan. 25, corrections officers went to Newcomer’s residence to arrest him.
Newcomer was gone.
According to the release, between February and April 2024, Newcomer sexually abused multiple teen girls he met on various social media platforms such as Discord and Snapchat.
He did this by posing as a teenage boy.
Newcomer then arranged to meet the children in person. At those meetings, he gave the girls drugs and alcohol and sexually assaulted them. The victims ranged from 12 to 16 years of age.
According to the release, Newcomer abused victims from King, Kitsap, Snohomish, Lewis, Clark, Thurston, and Spokane Counties as well as Woodburn, Oregon.
On Aug. 8, 2025, Newcomer pleaded guilty to travel with intent to engage in sexual acts with a minor and two counts of attempted enticement of a minor.
Travel with intent to engage in sexual acts is punishable by up to 30 years in prison, while enticement of a minor is punishable by a minimum of ten years in prison up to life.
At the sentencing hearing, U.S. District Judge John H. Chun called the crimes heartbreaking and ordered Newcomer to serve a lifetime supervised release following his 17-year prison term.
“This repeat offender is every parent’s nightmare — the dangerous stranger who enters your home via the internet and steals your child’s innocence,” said U.S. Attorney Charles Neil Floyd. “Having been convicted in state court of rape of a child, he had a chance to get treatment and turn his life around. Instead, he cut off his ankle monitor and preyed upon more than a dozen children for his sexual gratification. At least now he will be off the street.”
On Monday, prosecutors noted Newcomer possessed multiple electronic devices that contained child sexual abuse material, according to the release.
At this time, law enforcement have yet to identify every child pictured in those images.
During the hearing, victims’ family members described the impact the crimes have had on the entire family, and the profound damage they caused to their children, according to the release.
“He manipulated, drugged and abused our child,” one father told the court.
W. Mike Herrington, special agent in charge of the FBI Seattle field office, said Newcomer “clearly didn’t learn his lesson” after his previous sentence.
“Right after removing his monitoring device and fleeing supervision, Mr. Newcomer quickly returned to exploiting children, luring and sexually assaulting multiple teen and pre-teen girls from across Washington and Oregon by impersonating a teen boy online,” Herrington said. “Thanks to the efforts of several federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies, young people in the Pacific Northwest will be safer with Mr. Newcomer behind bars. We hope this lengthy sentence serves as a warning of the severe consequences child predators can face for their crimes.”
The case was investigated by the FBI, the Woodburn Police Department, Marion County District Attorney’s Office, Auburn Police Department, Snoqualmie Police Department, Black Diamond Police Department, Des Moines Police Department, King County Sheriff’s Office and the Kent Police Department, with the assistance from the DOC, according to the release.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Cecelia Gregson is prosecuting the case, which was reportedly brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the DOJ.
For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.
