A 34-year-old youth pastor in Virginia is facing federal charges over allegations he posed as a teenage boy to exchange nude photos and videos with young girls, telling one of them last month that it was “time for her to see her first d**k,” according to an FBI probable cause affidavit obtained first by The Independent.
“I don’t know if im readyyyy im only 15 and I barely know anything abt that whole topiccc,” the girl responded.
Throughout the conversation, Jacob Ryan Barnett – who is known as Pastor Jake to parishioners – “repeatedly asked” the youngster for pictures of her crotch, the affidavit states.
On at least two occasions, it says Barnett messaged with the teen while speaking to his wife on the phone, at one point receiving a clip of the girl’s exposed genitalia she had filmed at the age of 14.
Barnett, the father of a two-year-old boy, was arrested in North Carolina on Wednesday, several hours after The Independent requested comment from the Richmond, Virginia, U.S. Attorney’s Office. Charging documents had been accidentally left unsealed before FBI agents took Barnett into custody.
Reached by phone before he was apprehended, Barnett claimed to be “totally confused” about the situation and declined to elaborate.
Barnett is the Associate Pastor of Students & Mobilization at the Catawba Valley Baptist Church. He previously served for five years as the head of the children’s ministry at the Bethel Baptist Church in Yorktown, Virginia.
“Jake felt the call to ministry when he was in middle school,” Barnett’s church bio reads. “He has volunteered in children's and youth ministry at each church he has attended. Jake loves teaching the next generation about the truths of the Bible and serving God's people.”
He graduated from the College at Southeastern in 2018 and is currently working on his M.A. at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, according to the bio. His wife Cayla graduated from Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University – which has endured sex scandals of its own – in 2020.
“Together, they enjoy visiting historical places such as the Battlefields of Yorktown and Colonial Williamsburg,” the bio says. “Jake and Cayla love playing board games, card games, and spending time with family.”
Eleven days ago, Barnett delivered a sermon, “The Story of Salvation,” in which he touched on the apparent importance of “settling with your accuser.”
The emails and phone numbers Barnett used to communicate with his alleged victims matched certain ones he used to communicate with churchgoers; a source close to the investigation confirmed the details of Barnett’s professional background.
A call to Catawba Valley Baptist Church on Thursday went straight to voicemail. Barnett does not yet have an attorney listed in court records.
On May 20, the FBI National Threat Operations Center received an online tip from a mother in Michigan that a then-unknown subject had been attempting to groom her 15-year-old daughter, according to the probable cause affidavit filed in the case.
Two days earlier, the teen had received a message on TikTok that “appeared to belong to a 17-year-old boy from Virginia who called himself ‘Jodie Johnson,’” the affidavit states.
It says investigating agents interviewed the teen’s mother, who said she had gone through her daughter’s phone and found a text chain between her and “Johnson,” in which the girl had sent him an assortment of nude pictures.
In early June, the FBI subpoenaed Verizon for an ID of the account holder behind Johnson’s number, which showed it belonged to Barnett. Google records the bureau obtained showed the number linked to his various emails, one of which was his official Bethel Baptist Church account, the affidavit shows.
Barnett’s TikTok account appeared to be following “thousands of minor girls,” according to the affidavit.
The 15-year-old girl, who is identified in court filings as “M.V.,” for “Minor Victim,” told investigators that she knew people from Virginia and thought “Johnson” looked like one of her friends.
The messages showed Barnett, as Johnson, pestering M.V. for nude photos and videos, and specifically requested “something that he could masturbate to,” which she duly provided, the affidavit continues.
In an interview with an FBI adolescent specialist, M.V. said she at first “didn’t want to” send Barnett the explicit materials, but eventually gave in. However, she specified that everything she shared was already on her camera roll from when she was 14 or 15 years-old, according to the affidavit. From there, things became “very graphic,” with Barnett describing to M.V. how he would have sex with her, the affidavit goes on.
Barnett then sent M.V. a picture of himself in boxers, with the outline of his genitalia visible through the underwear, the affidavit says.
“[Barnett] asked M.V. when she last shaved her vagina,” the affidavit contends. “She lied and said the day before… M.V. sent an older video of herself masturbating when she was 14, which depicted her exposed vagina.”
While M.V. was asleep, her mom took her daughter’s phone to message someone and spotted the photos and video she had sent to Barnett, according to the affidavit. It says that when she googled the recipient’s number, she saw that it belonged to “a grown man named Jacob Barnett.”
Phone records showed Barnett had chatted with M.V. while talking to his wife on at least two occasions. On May 19, at 4:30 p.m., Barnett messaged M.V.’s phone, answered a call from his wife at 4:32 p.m., and M.V. messaged Barnett a batch of photos at 4:33 p.m. He then wrote back to M.V. at 4:34 p.m., according to the affidavit.
“In other words, within less than five minutes, Barnett messaged M.V., talked to his wife for a minute, and messaged M.V. again,” the affidavit states.
On May 20, at 10:34 a.m., Barnett messaged M.V., answered a call from his wife at 10:35 a.m., and messaged Barnett while that call was still in progress, the affidavit maintains. Prior to taking his wife’s call, Barnett had responded to M.V.’s previous four messages “within approximately 30 seconds,” according to the affidavit.
In late July, records from Snap, Inc. revealed Barnett had also been communicating with a second 15-year-old girl whose username The Independent is withholding for her privacy. Under the usernames “duh_jodie” and “jodie_j1234,” Barnett allegedly told the girl it “was time to see her first d**k,” which she resisted, but sent pictures of his private parts anyway, the affidavit states.
While haranguing the girl for nude shots of herself, Barnett “described how he would have sex with [her] and encouraged her to masturbate,” according to the affidavit.
“She said she had never masturbated, prompting Barnett to explain how to do it,” the affidavit says.
She ended up sending Barnett a slew of photos, but agents were unable to view them because they were either encrypted or deleted, the affidavit explains. However, the context of the conversation made it clear they were sexually explicit in nature.
Barnett is now charged with attempted coercion and enticement of a minor. If convicted, he faces a mandatory minimum of 10 years in prison and a maximum of life.
He is set to make his initial court appearance in Roanoke early next week.
Comments