EDENTON, N.C. — A former Hertford, North Carolina town council member 39-year-old Quenton Sherard Jackson was sentenced to decades in prison on Monday after he pleaded guilty to multiple charges including statutory rape of a teenager.
On July 15, Jackson pleaded guilty to one count of statutory rape, two counts of a statutory sexual offense, two counts of first-degree sexual exploitation and two counts of taking indecent liberties with a minor child.
According to the North Carolina District 1 District Attorney’s Office, at the time those crimes were committed Jackson was 36 and his victim, the daughter of a woman he dated several years prior, was 15 years old.
According to the North Carolina District 1 District Attorney’s Office, those offenses were consolidated into a single judgment due to a plea agreement.
On Monday in the Chowan County Superior Court, Judge Marvin Blount Jr. consolidated those offenses into a single judgment due to a plea agreement and sentenced Jackson to an active term of imprisonment of roughly 23 years minimum and 32 years maximum in prison.
“Anyone that has worked in the criminal justice system will tell you, sex offense cases are the hardest to prosecute,” stated District Attorney Cruden. “Thankfully, the victim and her mother were strong and stayed true to the end.”
According to Cruden, in the weeks leading up to his sentencing, Jackson attempted to discredit the victim’s account and the evidence against him.
Prosecutors presented the victim’s statement and evidence of Jackson’s DNA recovered from the victim’s underwear and shorts, along with explicit photographs and videos taken from Jackson’s phone with corresponding dates, times, and locations to convince the Court to sentence him to the maximum sentence allowed under the law.
In January 2019, a then 33-year-old Jackson was convicted of punching a fellow Hertford town council member, Sid Eley, in the head after a face-to-face confrontation between the two escalated at an October meeting. Eley was 72 years old at the time of the assault.
Subsequently, in May 2019, a superior court judge ruled that the two men stay more than 20 feet apart and erect a physical barrier so they could attend town meetings in the cramped chambers.
