The Ohio man used missionary trips to gain access to vulnerable Haitian children and now faces up to 33 years in federal prison.
By Le Floridien
MIAMI — Jeriah Mast, a former American missionary who traveled repeatedly to Haiti over nearly two decades, has pleaded guilty to federal charges of sexually abusing two minors in the Caribbean nation.
Mast, 45, of Millersburg, Ohio, entered his guilty plea on September 8 to two counts of engaging in illicit sexual conduct with minors in Haiti, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Federal authorities said Mast traveled from the United States to Haiti on numerous occasions between 2002 and 2019, including while working with Christian Aid Ministries, an Ohio-based organization supported primarily by Amish, conservative Mennonite and related religious communities.
Investigators obtained flight records showing that Mast took more than 30 flights from the United States to Haiti between November 2002 and August 2018. During those visits, prosecutors said, he used the access and trust associated with missionary work to sexually abuse vulnerable Haitian children.
“Jeriah Mast preyed on vulnerable children while working in Haiti as a missionary,” Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division said in announcing the guilty plea.
Duva described Mast’s conduct as a profound betrayal of the trust placed in someone supposedly sent abroad to perform humanitarian and religious work.
Abuse reportedly extended over several years
Mast was federally indicted in December 2025 on four counts involving four different minors in Haiti. The alleged offenses occurred during trips made in 2004, 2007 and 2011.
As part of the plea agreement, he admitted guilt to charges involving two of those children. Both victims were between the ages of 12 and 16 at the time of the offenses. Prosecutors are expected to seek the dismissal of the two remaining federal counts.
The federal case represents only part of the abuse attributed to Mast. During a 2019 interview with Ohio authorities, he reportedly admitted to molesting more than 30 boys in Haiti between approximately 2003 and 2019, in addition to abusing children in Ohio, according to court records cited by the Associated Press.
Mast was sentenced in 2019 to nine years in an Ohio state prison after pleading guilty to charges involving two boys in that state. He served nearly six years before receiving an early judicial release in October 2025 and being placed on probation.
Federal investigators accelerated their investigation into Mast’s conduct in Haiti after learning that he had been released from state prison. He was arrested on federal charges in November 2025 and formally indicted the following month.
Questions surrounding missionary oversight
The case has also raised serious questions about the responsibility of missionary organizations operating in impoverished countries such as Haiti.
Christian Aid Ministries acknowledged in 2019 that some of its managers had known about Mast’s sexual misconduct years earlier. Two managers were placed on leave amid reports that Mast had confessed to misconduct as early as 2013 but was nevertheless allowed to remain associated with the organization.
That history has intensified concerns about whether sufficient safeguards existed to protect Haitian children and whether warning signs were properly reported to law enforcement.
Missionaries and humanitarian workers often enter vulnerable communities with considerable authority and access. Families may trust them because they provide food, education, health care or religious support. When that trust is abused, children living in poverty or without strong institutional protection can become particularly vulnerable.
“This defendant violated the innocence of children and violated the trust of those who supported his supposed missionary work,” U.S. Attorney David M. Toepfer for the Northern District of Ohio said. “It is reprehensible behavior that we will prosecute to the fullest.”
Sentencing scheduled for December
Under the plea agreement reached with federal prosecutors, Mast faces a prison term ranging from 25 to 33 years. The final sentence, however, will be determined by U.S. District Judge Donald C. Nugent.
His sentencing is scheduled for December 15, 2026.
Although the crimes occurred in Haiti, Mast could be prosecuted in the United States under federal laws allowing authorities to charge American citizens who travel abroad and engage in illicit sexual conduct with minors.
For members of the Haitian community, the case is another painful example of foreign individuals allegedly entering the country under the banner of charity or religious service while exploiting the very people they claimed to help. It also reflects the need for stronger background checks, independent oversight and mandatory reporting requirements for foreign organizations working with children in Haiti.
The guilty plea may bring a measure of legal accountability, but it cannot erase the lasting harm suffered by the victims. It also leaves an important question for religious and humanitarian institutions: Who is responsible for protecting vulnerable children when the people entrusted to serve them become their abusers?
