OAKLAND — A man who served 10 years in prison for human trafficking was seen in early 2023 throwing a “kicking and screaming” woman into the trunk of his Mercedes in a neighborhood known for prostitution.
But 42-year-old Jason Nious didn’t face criminal charges in that incident, nor two months later when prosecutors say he was pulled over with a “young woman, possibly a minor,” in the same Oakland neighborhood. It wasn’t until September 2024, when Nious was allegedly arrested with a gun while hanging out with a murder suspect that the federal and local government brought serious charges against him.
Now, Nious has been charged in state and federal court with being a felon in possession of a firearm. Both cases stem from the same Sept. 18 incident, the latest of 10 arrests Nious has had since being released from prison for human trafficking in 2021, according to court records.
The federal firearm charge, filed Dec. 12, carries a maximum 15-year penalty. Nious was out on bail in the gun case filed by the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office when he was arrested on a federal warrant. Federal prosecutors have moved to keep him behind bars without bail, arguing he represents a danger to women in the city’s most notorious high-prostitution area of East Oakland.
“The defendant’s criminal conduct spans decades and has become increasingly violent—and that record does not even capture the fact that the defendant has repeatedly been stopped by law enforcement on the Oakland blade after engaging in conduct such as shoving women into car trunks,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Ivana Djak wrote of Nious in a legal filing. “The community, and vulnerable women in particular, are not safe when the defendant is not in custody.”
The alleged kidnapping attempt occurred in broad daylight on Feb. 3, 2023, at the 1500 block of 15th Avenue. It was around 11 a.m. when Nious allegedly forced a “kicking and screaming” woman into the trunk of his Mercedes, causing such a scene that eyewitnesses began to pull their phones and film the incident, police said in court filings.
When an Oakland officer arrived, the woman was still there, and appeared disheveled, according to police. She refused to provide a statement. An Oakland sex crimes investigator was called in to see whether this was an attempt to force the victim into prostitution, and found surveillance camera footage confirming what had happened, but Nious was never charged, according to police and court records.
Then, in April 2023, prosecutors wrote that the same officer who’d responded to the alleged kidnapping pulled over Nious’ Mercedes to find him and a female inside. Federal prosecutors wrote in court filings that the passenger was a “young woman, possibly a minor” who was uncooperative with the officer. Police apparently never identified her and nothing came of the incident, records show.
That same month, county prosecutors filed a misdemeanor marijuana possession charge against Nious, but dismissed it in June 2023, records show. He was also charged with failing to register as a sex offender in June 2024, but that charge was also dismissed one week after his gun arrest, records show.
The gun arrest occurred on Sept. 18. Police were actually there to arrest a 21-year-old murder suspect who Nious was with that day. They took the younger man into custody at 1500 6th Avenue — one mile away from where the alleged kidnapping occurred — and searched both men.
Police say they found two pistols during the arrest — one in the 21-year-old’s Infiniti and one in Nious’ Mercedes, according to court filings. The 21-year-old suspect avoided a murder charge — prosecutors ended up charging another man, Keyante Reed, in that case — but was charged with possessing the pistol, records show.
In the motion to detain Nious, federal prosecutors said that Oakland police and the FBI have been joining together to “combat violence” in a stretch along International Boulevard known as “The Blade,” a slang term for an area where street-walking sex workers congregate.
“OPD Officers and FBI agents … have seen the defendant on or near the Oakland blade, as well as a well-known blade in Salinas, on multiple occasions,” Djak wrote.