PANAMA CITY — A Callaway man pleaded no contest this week in a deal with prosecutors that will put him behind bars for four years for raping a child more than 40 years ago.
Jackson Youngblood, 71, was arrested in February after a woman told investigators with the sheriff’s office he had forced her to do sex acts on him throughout her childhood. He entered a plea to a count of sexual battery on a child under 12 and trespassing in an occupied structure.
Judge Michael Overstreet sentenced Youngblood to four years in prison for the rape charge and time served for the misdemeanor trespassing charge. Youngblood could’ve faced life in prison for the rape charge if he had been convicted at trial, which was scheduled to begin Dec. 16.
Youngblood’s felony charges in this case dated back to the early 1970s, when he used to take the victim to a real estate office and force her to perform oral sex on him. If the victim, who was about 7 when the abuse began, refused Youngblood he would choke her until she complied, she told authorities.
Sheriff Frank McKeithen already was familiar with Youngblood when he went to his home in February to question him about the victim’s allegations and found him naked from the waist down, drunk and looking at pornography with the front door open. The sheriff became familiar with Youngblood when he was investigating the disappearance and slaying of a young woman named Vivian Edwards in 1983.
McKeithen said in an interview earlier this year that Youngblood was one of the best suspects in the Edwards case, but there was never enough evidence to arrest anyone.
McKeithen said he wanted to make a charge against Youngblood, who he suspected of masturbating in front open windows before McKeithen arrived, and after talking with Youngblood’s neighbors he had probable cause to arrest Youngblood on several felonies. Several neighbors complained about Youngblood, who had lived in the trailer park less than a week. Neighbors said they’d watched Youngblood attempt to break in to one home, and an 11-year-old girl identified Youngblood as the man who had entered the bathroom while she was in the shower the night before.
By entering the plea, Youngblood resolved all of his outstanding charges.
Additional conditions of Overstreet’s sentence require Youngblood to register as a sexual offender. He will receive credit for the time he spent in the Bay County Jail since February.