SAN DIEGO (CNS) - A San Diego gang member who recruited a 15-year-old girl to work for him as a prostitute and took all the proceeds she made from the illegal activities was sentenced Thursday to almost 20 years in federal prison.
Jonathan Jamar Sanders, 28, also known as "Sincere," pleaded guilty to sex trafficking of children less than a week before his scheduled trial in January.
He was previously convicted of a similar offense in 2006 involving an adult female in San Diego Superior Court.
According to court documents, Sanders admitted recruiting the teenager to work as a prostitute in early 2009.
The defendant arranged for photos of the minor, along with advertisements detailing costs, to be posted online on websites, according to the documents.
During Thursday's sentencing hearing, U.S. District Court Judge Dana Sabraw said the defendant's violent conduct toward the teenage victim and other women is a "form of modern day slavery ... involving society's most vulnerable victims."
The judge further noted that sex trafficking is "... a type of subjugation of women in today's society, that should not be tolerated or accepted."
