My son Xavier Jennings was wrongfully convicted of aggravated child molestation on August 29, 2024.
His story started when he was just 16 years old. However, he was 22 years old at the time of conviction. His fiancée was pregnant with his daughter at the time of his conviction. The judge did not write his sentencing to reflect that he would be able to see his daughter at visitation under supervision even though it was discussed at sentencing. Xavier’s daughter was born in November 2024 and she has not been able to meet her daddy as of now. Xavier currently has a court appointed attorney who will not fight for him at all, he doesn’t show up for court or return phone calls or emails. I’m trying to sell my house to get my son a new attorney that will fight for him. 

This is Xavier’s story-

June 2018 my son was 16 years old. My stepsons wife called me to say that her 8 year old son had made her 6 year old son with Down syndrome and her 3 year old daughter perform oral sex on him. When she questioned him he initially he lied and said he didn’t do it. Then, he said he learned it on the phone and then  said he learned it from my son. I said there was no way because my son is almost never at home when her son visits my house and my son has never been alone with her son. 

I asked if she called the police and she said no she was going to handle it herself. I said no we are going to call the police so they will investigate and you will see he didn’t do this. 
I called the police. It took weeks for them to come question my son. When they did come they already had an arrest warrant but did not disclose that at all. Then, after questioning him he was arrested. He spent 3 weeks in YDC before he got bond. He bonded out on house arrest and an ankle monitor. He showed up to every court date. He graduated high school early while on house arrest. 
Unfortunately, Xavier had a public defender who was new and did not have enough experience in sex crimes. However, upon preparing for trial, he discovered that the child had previous sexual behavior 2 years prior to this incident (the child was 6) and blamed another uncle showing him pornography on a phone.

January 2020 he went to trial.

• The judge at the time allowed Xavier’s lawyer to question the child and mother (who also hid this information initially) about the incident in 2016 with the child at school exhibiting sexual behavior 
• The judge did not allow the DFACS or school records into evidence though
• The lead investigator said on the stand she did not do a thorough investigation 
• Xavier had almost 6 months of alibis proving he was not with the child and was 2 hours away with his godmother when the child visited our house
• No one else was ever looked at as a suspect for the abuse (even though I stated how inappropriate the maternal grandfather touched the kids)
• The “victim” continued to sexually assault his younger special needs brother even after Xavier’s arrest 
• After two and a half days of deliberations the jury was deadlocked at 8 not guilty and 4 guilty
• Xavier went home still on bond. 

August 2024

• DA took him back to trial again
• This time he had a different judge and DA
• This judge did not allow any of the incident from 2016 to be talked about
• Parts of the forensic interview were deleted to show only what the DA wanted to show the jurors because the child talked about the school incident on his own from 2016
• The jury could not know that there was a previous trial
• The date range when the incident supposedly took place changed multiple times
• How do you defend yourself and provide solid alibis when you don’t know the date or even the month said incident was supposed to have occurred 
• The child and other state witnesses stories changed multiple times 
• No one else again was looked at as possible suspects 
• The mother, grandfather and psychologist stated the child had previously had problems with lying 
• The child even admitted that he had lied about things in the past
• The transcripts from the first trial were not certified and took 3 years to produce and should not have been able to be used to take Xavier back to trial
• The DA used intimidation tactics to get Xavier’s attorney to not call witnesses 
• The DA used a forensic expert to bolster the testimony 
• The jury was instructed that if they believed the child’s story at all it doesn’t matter when it could have happened and they were to find him guilty. 
• The state unlawfully withheld evidence 
• August 29, 2024 after only 2 hours of deliberations, the day before a holiday weekend, the jury came back with a guilty verdict based on just a child’s testimony 
• September 19, 2024 my son was sentenced to 25 years minimum mandatory years on 2 charges and life on probation 

This has torn my whole family apart. I worry that every day that my other grandchildren are still being abused. The weekend after my son was found guilty I was given a video from another family member. In the video the mother and grandfather are “playing a game” and paying young boys at their house to lick each other’s armpits and nipples. Does the sounds like victim or pedophilia behavior? 
We took this video to the police station and the officer said it was strange but not necessarily against the law but that he would write a report in case anything else happens
As long as this goes on there will continue to be more victims from the now 15 year old young man who is now in high school. 

Please sign this petition to get my sons conviction overturned and get him released so that he will not miss out on anymore of his daughters life. This has destroyed his life for 7 years. In 2 hours 12 people, who did not take the trial seriously nor did they have all the facts, were able to take away everything he ever had in his life. Xavier missed his daughter being born, her first thanksgiving, Christmas and new year. He turned 23 years old in prison in December. 
No one should ever be sentenced when the evidence does not support the conviction.
Please help me get justice for my son. 
Now is the time to act! This could be your child. Please sign my petition to get justice for Xavier.