Tennessee Man Convicted By Federal Jury of Transporting a Minor Across State Lines to Engage in Sex

Greenville, MS – A federal jury convicted a Tennessee man this week of three counts of transporting a minor across state lines to engage in sex.

According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Terry Dewayne Macon met a Mississippi teen online in July of 2024. Over the next month, Macon drove from Tennessee to Mississippi on three occasions where he picked up the minor and returned with her to Tennessee. Macon later admitted that he had engaged in sex acts with the minor. At the time of the transport and sex acts, Macon was 27 years old, and the female was 14 years old.

On August 28, 2024, members of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Child Abduction Response Team located the minor with Macon at a residence in Grand Junction, Tennessee and returned her safely home. The jury considered the testimony of the minor and her mother, as well as two Task Force Officers with the FBI. Macon was found guilty on all counts of transporting a minor in interstate commerce with the intent to engage in unlawful sexual activity. He will be sentenced for these offenses by Chief United States District Judge Debra M. Brown on a later date.

Macon was serving a term of federal supervised release at the time of the offenses. At a revocation proceeding held following the verdict, Judge Brown sentenced Macon to 24 months for the violations of release, which will run concurrent to the future sentence imposed in the sex offense case.

U.S. Attorney Scott F. Leary of the Northern District of Mississippi and FBI Special Agent in Charge Robert Eikhoff of the FBI Jackson Field Office made the announcement concerning the jury’s guilty verdict.

The FBI Jackson Field Office and the Corinth Police Department investigated the case with assistance from the FBI Nashville, Jackson Resident Agency and other local investigative agencies in the State of Tennessee.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Julie Addison and Parker King are prosecuting the case.

This case was prosecuted as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse.  Led by the U.S. Attorneys' Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.