Jacksonville father believes UNF student accused of sextortion also ‘catfished' his son

A Jacksonville father believes the University of North Florida student accused of trying to blackmail a victim for sex also victimized his son.

The father, who didn’t want to reveal his identity, said the suspect, Jesse Martinez, met his son while pretending to be a girl on Facebook.

Martinez, 21, is still sitting in jail on a more than $77,000 bond.

After Action News Jax aired his mugshot Thursday, a viewer contacted us about him.

“As soon as I saw it, I knew who he was, and this was something that happened over two years ago,” said David.

We’ll call him David for the purposes of this story.

David said his son befriended someone by the name of “Brittany” on Facebook, a relationship that later turned romantic.

“Eventually one day they were going to meet each other and there was just excuses after excuses as to why it never happened,” said David.

David said Brittany then started asking his son to befriend Martinez, who attended his same school.

“That he was alone, he didn’t have any friends and was forcing him to be friends with Jesse,” said David.

David said his son and Brittany would exchange photos but when an in-person meeting kept getting canceled, his son grew suspicious.

“Then at that point [it was] ‘You need to do this or I’m going to show these photos,’” David said.

David said Brittany then deleted her profile.

He said he tried reporting it to police but claims the officer did not help nor did he fill out a police report.

He’s speaking out now because he believes his son and the latest victim are not the only ones.

“Don’t ever let someone take advantage of you in that way, and don’t send the photos,” said David.

Martinez has no prior convictions or arrests in Duval County, according to public records.

Cox Media Group