Zhijun Xia, Child Enticement, Nebraska 2020

Omaha, NE – A University of Nebraska Omaha graduate student has been sentenced to 210 months in prison for coercing and enticing a minor, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced today. Zhijun Xia, 30, of China, was found guilty of Coercion and Enticement of a Minor.

Between June 1, 2018, and February 28, 2020, Xia was a graduate student at the University of Nebraska Omaha. He met the victim’s mother, who hired him to tutor the victim in the Chinese language. Xia began tutoring the victim in June of 2018 and began communicating with the victim over the social media application WeChat.

Xia began inquiring over WeChat about the victim’s sexual history. On July 10, 2018, the victim attended a summer camp at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, Nebraska. Xia messaged the victim over the Internet using WeChat about his plan to visit her in Lincoln on July 11. During this conversation, Xia discussed various forms of birth control with the victim in response to the victim relaying her fears of becoming pregnant while in high school.

Xia reserved a room at the Red Roof Inn and Suites in Lincoln for the night of July 11. Xia picked up the victim from the University of Nebraska campus and took the victim to the Red Roof Inn, where he subjected the victim to sexual penetration. Xia was 27 years of age and the victim was 15 years of age. It is a crime under Nebraska State law for someone over the age of 25 to subject someone between the ages of 12 and 16 to sexual penetration.

Xia has also pled guilty to one count of First Degree Sexual Assault in the District Court of Douglas County, Nebraska for events occurring with the same victim in Omaha. He is scheduled to be sentenced on that case on August 25, 2021.

FBI Omaha Special Agent in Charge Eugene Kowel said, ‘The family of Zhijun Xia’s victim trusted him as an academic and tutor. He used that trust to prey on a teenage girl. His sentence today serves as an example of FBI Omaha’s unwavering commitment to work with our law enforcement partners to investigate and prosecute anyone who victimizes children.’

Xia will be deported back to China after serving his sentence. He was also ordered to pay $3,000 in restitution and will be on supervised release for 5 years after his release from prison.

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