Yesterday U.S. District Judge Julie R. Rubin sentenced Jalen Thomas Kelley, 22, of Abingdon, Maryland, to 20 years in federal prison, followed by five years of supervised release, for raping a minor who was sailing with her family on a Carnival cruise ship out of Baltimore, Maryland. This news comes from a press release by the U.S. Justice Department. Kelly was previously convicted, following a two-week trial, on December 12, 2024, of “aggravated sexual abuse, sexual abuse, and assault.”
According to the court file and evidence presented at trial, between January 1 and January 2, 2023, Kelley, then age 21, forcibly raped and assaulted the teenage girl aboard the Carnival Legend.
We first reported on the sexual assault in September of 2023 when Kelly was arrested. When we first reported on this case, we mentioned that “the cruise industry refuses to disclose, generally, when the victim of a sexual assault on a cruise ship is a minor. However, testimony of the FBI before Congress indicates that approximately one-third of sex crimes on cruises are committed against children.”
According to the court file, Kelley was a junior at Wingate University vacationing on the Carnival Legend which sailed out of Baltimore, when he met the 17-year-old victim on the Carnival cruise ship after a New Year’s Eve party on the early morning of Jan. 1, 2023.
According to the Miami Herald and New York Post, the minor became intoxicated at the party on the cruise ship. “Kelley saw that (she) was intoxicated (by his own admission), realized she was vulnerable, and offered to take her to the bathroom. When she stepped outside the bathroom (in his cabin), Kelley pushed her on the bed, ‘face first,’ and raped her. After raping (her), Kelley asked, ‘you good?'”
None of the news accounts explain how the minor had access to the party where alcohol was served on the cruise ship. Most sexual assaults which occur during cruises on Carnival ships involve an intoxicated victim. There is a direct correlation between excessive alcohol sold on cruise ships and shipboard crime, in general, and sexual crimes against women, in particular.
After the cruise returned to Baltimore, the victim returned with her family home to Virginia, where she reported the rape to her parents and police. A medical examination at a hospital revealed bruises on her arm and shins, as well as “vaginal abrasions, tearing and bruising.”
Additionally, during the trial, prosecutors presented testimony from six other individuals who claimed that Kelley had sexually assaulted them on separate occasions. In 2019, Kelley was convicted as a minor in a sexual assault case, according to the Miami Herald. While the FBI was investigating him following the rape on the Carnival Legend, he allegedly raped a classmate at Wingate University in North Carolina where he played played varsity football, prosecutors said. The Daily Mail reported Carnival Cruise Rapist Unmasked As College Football Star With Habit of Sexually Assaulting Girls.
In 2010, the International Cruise Victims (ICV) organization was successful in having Congress pass the Cruise Vessel Security and Safety Act into law. The law required cruise lines to report certain crimes which occur with regularity, which include sexual and physical assaults on cruise ships.
The data required by the Cruise Vessel Security and Safety Act of 2010 show that Carnival Cruise Line had thirty-nine (39) sexual assaults and rapes on its cruise ship for 2024. A breakdown by quarter is as follows:
- Quarter 1 (January 1 – March 31st): 9
- Quarter 2 (April 1 – June 30th): 9
- Quarter 3 (July 1st – September 30st): 8
- Quarter 4 (October 1st – December 31st) 13
We most recently wrote about Carnival Cruise Line crime here: Recent Cruise Crime Data Shows Carnival Cruise Line Remains the Most Dangerous Cruise Line at Sea. For the first quarter of this year (2025), Carnival Cruise Line continued to lead all cruise lines with nine sexual assaults and rapes on Carnival ships.
The purpose of mandatory public reporting of sexual assaults, rapes, and physical assaults with serious bodily injuries on cruise ships is to “educate and warn the traveling public of dangers on cruise ships.” By all accounts, Carnival remains the most dangerous place to take your family on a vacation cruise. In past articles, we have reported that the average per capita sexual assault and rape rate on Carnival cruise ships is higher than 20 to 25 states in the United States. Read: Final DOT Cruise Crime Data For 2023: Carnival Cruise Line’s Per Capita Sexual Assault / Rape Rate Is Higher Than 27 States.
This is not the first sexual assault on the Carnival Legend. One of the most notorious sexual assault cases on this ship occurred in 2018 when an 18 year-old with special needs (and with the mental capacity of a 13-year-old) was sexually assaulted by man during a cruise to the Bahamas. The incident occurred in a hot tub aboard the Carnival cruise ship. The victim was travelling on a birthday cruise/girl’s trip with her grandmother. The rapist “watched her then targeted her in the hot tub.”
Carnival has consistently led the cruise industry with the most shipboard rapes and violent physical assaults leading to serious physical injuries. Going back to 2017, 35 passengers and crew members reported being victims of sexual attacks on Carnival Cruise Line ships, for an an average of three a month.
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Image credit: Carnival Legend – Carnival Cruise Line website; Jalen Kelley – Gaston County Jail via Recently Booked; Carnival funnel – Cruzely; Jalen Kelley football uniform – @NicoleMastrogiannis via Daily Mail.