A Cleveland man facing a mountain of sex crime charges involving a child has cut off his court-ordered GPS ankle monitor and disappeared, and authorities are now asking the public for help finding him. Jahmil Young faces charges including gross sexual imposition, kidnapping with a sexual motivation specification, abduction, and disseminating matter harmful to juveniles, tied to incidents that occurred between 2021 and 2024.
According to Cleveland 19 News, Young faces seven counts of gross sexual imposition with a sexually violent predator specification, four additional counts of gross sexual imposition, four counts of disseminating matter harmful to juveniles, abduction, and kidnapping with a sexual motivation specification. Court records cited by the station indicate Young showed the victim, who was under 13 years old at the time, his penis and pornography. In March, Young pleaded guilty to gross sexual imposition, disseminating matter harmful to juveniles, and abduction, per Crime Stoppers of Cuyahoga County.
What the Charges Carry
The stakes for Young are severe under Ohio law. Gross sexual imposition involving a victim under 13 is a third-degree felony carrying 9 to 60 months in prison and 25 years of Tier 2 sex offender registration, according to the Botnick Law Firm. The sexually violent predator specification attached to seven of those counts is even more consequential — under Ohio Revised Code § 2941.148, it requires a grand jury indictment and can allow courts to impose sentences up to life imprisonment for defendants found to have a pattern of sexually violent or child-victim offenses, as explained by the Youngstown Criminal Law Group.
Abduction committed with a sexual motivation is classified as a third-degree felony punishable by up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000, per the Joslyn Law Firm. Disseminating matter harmful to juveniles is typically a first-degree misdemeanor for non-obscene material, but it elevates to a fifth-degree felony carrying up to a year in prison if the material is deemed obscene, according to Funkhouser Law.
How He Slipped Away
Young had been on pretrial electronic monitoring before he cut off his tracker and vanished. In Cuyahoga County, defendants on pretrial GPS monitoring wear non-removable ankle bracelets that transmit continuous location data to the Sheriff's Office Electronic Monitoring Unit around the clock, according to the county sheriff's office. The unit exists as an alternative to jail detention while cases are pending, and Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court reduced its daily monitoring fee from $8 to $3.20 per day back in 2021, capping total fees at $576 per felony case, per Signal Cleveland.
Cases like Young's are part of a broader pattern that has drawn statewide attention. In June, the Ohio House of Representatives passed House Bill 667 — known as the Reagan Tokes and Patrick Heringer Act — which would require continuous 24/7 real-time GPS monitoring oversight for violent offenders after a string of incidents involving defendants cutting off their ankle monitors, according to WOWO.
Tips Sought, Reward on the Table
Crime Stoppers of Cuyahoga County is now asking anyone with information on Young's whereabouts to come forward. Tipsters who call 216-252-7463 can remain completely anonymous, and those whose information leads to a felony arrest or indictment could be eligible for a reward of up to $5,000. The organization processes tips through an encrypted two-way dialog system that assigns code numbers without tracking caller ID or recording phone conversations.
Fugitive cases like this one are often ultimately resolved through the U.S. Marshals-led Northern Ohio Violent Fugitive Task Force, which coordinates federal, state, and local agencies to track down wanted felons and sex offenders across the region. It is not clear whether the task force has formally joined the search for Young, but the multi-agency model has become the standard approach for high-risk fugitives in the Cleveland area.
Young's case adds to a string of similar Cleveland-area incidents. In February, a Cleveland sex offender fled after an alleged sting meet-up with a decoy posing as a 14-year-old, and in July, Cleveland police sought a suspect in a 2015 bathroom rape case who also evaded capture. Both cases involved Crime Stoppers of Cuyahoga County tips. Nationally, the U.S. Department of Justice's Operation Relentless Justice, completed in December 2025, resulted in the recovery of more than 205 child victims and the arrest of 293 child sexual abuse offenders across 56 FBI field offices, including the Northern District of Ohio, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Ohio. Young remains on the run, and authorities have not indicated when or whether he has been located.
