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Willis Lewis, 49, of Oxon Hill, and Brittany Jones, 33, of Suitland, will both be spending years behind bars after being found of multime criminal charges for the illegal operation involving two minors.
Specifically, Lewis was sentenced to life, while Jones got 14 years for trafficking a 15-year-old and 17-year-old girl between April and May 2019.
According to prosecutors, Jones, working with two co-conspirators who since pleaded guilty, brought the two victims to Lewis for the purposes of trafficking them.
After they were in Lewis’s custody, Lewis set up “dates” for the two girls each day for almost two weeks and pocketed the money that the two teens made from these “dates,” they said.
Lewis used a loyalty contract, a firearm, and acts of violence to coerce the victims into performing commercial sex for his profit, according to officials. The police then became involved in the investigation after the two victims ran away from a residential facility in Virginia and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children issued a missing person’s report.
Officials said that at trial, "the co-conspirators testified against Lewis and Jones and were corroborated by independent evidence, including material from the digital devices and cell phone location data.”
Lewis was convicted on 12 counts, including:
- Four counts of sex trafficking of children by force;
- Fraud and coercion;
- Conspiracy to commit sex trafficking by force;
- Fraud, or coercion;
- Three counts of coercion or enticement of a minor;
- Two counts of transporting for prostitution;
- Interstate travel and transportation in aid of racketeering;
- A firearms offense.
Jones was convicted of four counts:
- Sex trafficking;
- Conspiracy;
- Transportation in aid of racketeering.
“This defendant targeted children, callously exploiting their vulnerability,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke stated. “The Department of Justice remains committed to holding traffickers accountable for the pernicious and inhumane exploitation of young children despite the harm these crimes inflict.
“We will use every tool at our disposal to obtain justice and restitution for the victims of human trafficking”
In addition to the prison terms, a judge also ordered 10 years of supervised release for both, who must pay $17,000 each in restitution to their victims.
“This lengthy sentence gets a dangerous predator off the streets for a very long time.” said US Attorney Matthew Graves said. “His lengthy confinement will keep other teenagers safe and serve as a warning to those who are considering exploiting our youth.
“Those harming our young women and girls need to know that the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, along with the FBI and our other law enforcement partners, will track you down and hold you accountable for the pain and suffering you cause.”
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