DALLAS — A Dallas man who pleaded guilty in February 2015 to sex trafficking a 17-year-old runaway was sentenced this morning, announced John Parker, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas.
Ladestro Douglas, a/k/a “Derek Douglas,” 36, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Barbara M. G. Lynn to 15 years in federal prison to be followed by five years of supervised release. He was also required to register as a sex offender and ordered to pay one of his victims $136,000 in restitution.
During sentencing, Judge Lynn noted that the case was not about prostitution, but rather, human trafficking. She stated that Douglas “was trafficking through the sale of children,” and “to call it human trafficking acknowledges the horror of what you [Douglas] were doing.”
Douglas pleaded guilty in February 2015 to one count of conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of children. He admitted meeting a 17-year-old female on the Internet, and convinced the minor to leave her foster home in Alabama and travel to Texas with him where he facilitated her engagement in commercial sex acts throughout Texas, including Odessa.
The North Texas Trafficking Taskforce and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) investigated. Assistant U.S. Attorney Cara Foos Pierce prosecuted.
Subscribe to the LIVE! Daily
Required
Post a comment to this article here: