ASHLAND – Last Friday a former Herald Whitaker Middle School teacher was sentenced in federal court to 11 years in prison for attempted online enticement of a minor.
Jordan A. Cobb, 32, of Coon Creek Rd., in Salyersville, was sentenced by Chief U.S. District Judge David Bunning to 132 months in prison, with the judge accepting the plea agreement According to the plea agreement, from April through May 2023, while Cobb was a middle school teacher, he engaged in a Snapchat conversation with a 14-year-old former student. During the course of the conversation, Cobb reportedly sent a series of sexually explicit messages, including questions to the minor about masturbation and sexual preferences, offers to provide the minor with marijuana, and a plan to meet for sexual intercourse.
Under federal law, Cobb must serve 85 percent of his prison sentence. Upon his release from prison, he will be under the supervision of the U.S. Probation Office for 10 years.
Cobb continues to be in the custody of the U.S. Marshals, pending a designation being made by the Bureau of Prisons, with the court recommending the federal prison in Ashland.
Paul McCaffrey, First Assistant United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky; Olivia Olson, Special Agent in Charge, FBI, Louisville Field Division; and Col. Phillip J. Burnett, Jr., Commissioner of the Kentucky State Police jointly announced the conviction.
The investigation was conducted by the FBI and KSP. Assistant U.S. Attorney Justin Blankenship is prosecuting the case on behalf of the United States. The U.S. Attorney’s Office prosecuted this case as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by 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.
Federally indicted at the same time as Cobb, Jason W. Back, 43, also of Salyersville and a former teacher at Magoffin County High School, is awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty via a plea agreement last month to the federal charge of online enticement, the same charge as Cobb. According to Back’s plea deal, from between March 6 through 9, 2023, in Magoffin County, Back persuaded the minor to engage in sexual activity, specifying that he was a high school teacher when he engaged in a text message conversation with a 17-year-old student, sending a series of sexually explicit messages using his iPhone, including messages outline a plan to meet for unprotected sex on March 9, 2023. According to the plea agreement, the prosecution has evidence that shows Back picked up the minor and that the two had sexual intercourse in Back’s car.
Back’s plea agreement also indicated that, through a pattern of messages sent by Back, who was in a position of authority or special trust as a teacher, enticed the minor to engage in sexual intercourse, which would constitute a charge of third-degree rape.
Back is set for sentencing in his case for May 4 at 11 a.m. at the federal courthouse in Ashland, before Chief District Judge David L. Bunning. He is currently in custody at the Boyd County Detention Center, being held for U.S. Marshals.
Local Cases Against Cobb and Back
Last year, the two were indicted by a Magoffin County grand jury in March 2025, with Cobb charged with one count of procuring or promoting the use of a minor by electronic means (Class D felony) and one count of harassing communications (Class B misdemeanor). According to the indictment, on or about May 2, 2023, Cobb allegedly used a cellular telephone for procuring the use of a person, who was less than 18 years old at the time, in a sexual performance. On or about June 12, 2024, he allegedly, with the intent to intimidate, harass, annoy, or alarm the person, utilized social media to contact the child in a manner which caused annoyance and alarm and served no purpose of legitimate communication.
In May 2023, the SI ran a story confirming a middle school teacher reportedly had “inappropriate communication” with a high school student, and that the matter had been turned over to authorities to be investigated and any criminal prosecution. At the time of the news report, the teacher was no longer employed by Magoffin County Schools.
Cobb was arrested the same day he was indicted, held at the Big Sandy Regional Detention Center, and released on a $25,000 cash bond the next day.
Also in that same May 2023 SI news story, Magoffin County Schools Superintendent Chris Meadows had confirmed to the SI that a high school teacher had been suspended without pay earlier that same year, pending an investigation, having been turned over to Kentucky State Police.
That teacher, who is no longer an employee of the school system, was also indicted in Magoffin County Circuit Court in March, with Jason Back, then 42, of Painters Lick Rd., in Salyersville, charged with two counts of third-degree rape (Class D felonies), third-degree sodomy (Class D felony), and two counts of procuring or promoting the use of a minor by electronic means (Class D felonies).
According to the indictment, Back allegedly engaged in sexual intercourse with a 17-year-old, being in a position of authority and coming into contact with the minor under 18 years old as a result of that position, with count 1 stemming from February 1 through February 28, 2023, and count 2 from March 5 through 9.
The indictment alleges Back, on or about March 5, 2023, reportedly engaged in deviant sexual intercourse with the 17-year-old.
Counts 4 and 5 against Back allege he unlawfully used a cell phone for procuring the use of the minor in a sexual performance, with one dated for on or about March 6 through 9, 2023, and the other on or about March 7, 2023.
Back was arrested the same day he was indicted, held at the Big Sandy Regional Detention Center, and released on a $75,000 cash bond the next day.
In their Magoffin County Circuit Court indictment cases, Cobb and Back are both set for hearings on February 19, 2026.
Editor’s Note: The indictment or charge of a person by a grand jury or otherwise is an accusation only and that person is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.
