SAN MATEO COUNTY (BCN) — A 53-year-old man convicted of multiple felony counts for masturbating and exposing himself on BART trains has been sentenced to 25 years in state prison, San Mateo County prosecutors said Monday.
Jerome Dion Dawkins, a transient and registered sex offender, was convicted in October of felony stalking, false imprisonment, making threats, lewd acts on children and indecent exposure for three incidents in April and May 2015.
San Mateo County Superior Court Judge Barbara Mallach on Friday sentenced Dawkins to the 25-year sentence with more than three years’ credit for time served, according to the district attorney’s office.
Dawkins was accused during a 10-day trial of blocking a 24-year-old woman in a seat on a BART train in Daly City on April 22, 2015, then staring at her while masturbating, prosecutors said.
On May 5, 2015, a female victim was on a train at the San Francisco International Airport BART station when Dawkins called for her to look at him while he masturbated, prosecutors said.
The victim started to cry and Dawkins then moved to sit next to her. She got up and moved to another seat but Dawkins followed her, touched her leg and told her to stop crying and that he was going to make her pregnant, according to the district attorney’s office.
The victim then got off the train and reported the incident to police. A day later, Dawkins was on another BART train and exposed himself to a 24-year-old woman. Police arrived and arrested him, then linked him to the previous incidents, prosecutors said.