Parents Accused Of Killing Their 17-Year-Old Daughter's Pimp
LOS ANGELES (CBS) — A San Francisco couple is accused of murdering a Los Angeles man they say was their 17-year-old daughter's pimp.
Lupe Mercado and Barry Laprell Gilton said they tried everything they could to get their daughter away from 22-year-old Calvin Sneed. They tried law enforcement, registering her as a juvenile runaway. They say Sneed pushed their daughter into a life of prostitution.
Amanda Burden, reporting for CBS2 and KCAL9, spoke to Sneed's devastated father.
Charles Sneed told Burden he was aware his son was in trouble with the law. But says Calvin didn't deserve to lose his life.
"Call him a pimp. Call him a gang banger. Paint the picture as worse as you want. The fact of the matter is, he didn't deserve to die. That's the bottom line," says Sneed's father.
George Gascon, San Francisco District Attorney, says Calvin, from Compton, was a pimp and Gilton's daughter was an underage runaway. "She became a sex worker. And she was working for him. He was her pimp."
The couple reportedly traveled from the Bay area on May 27th and tracked Sneed to North Hollywood. They fired shots into his car but only wounded him. On June 4th, police say they came across Sneed and this time shot him dead.
Charles Sneed says his son went back north to bring the girl back back to Los Angeles."And what did my son get for that? A fatal shot to the head."
Erik Safire, an attorney for the couple, told reporters Mercado and Gilton "were faced with every parent's nightmare. They just tried their best to protect their daughter. And here they are, getting arrested. It's very overwhelming."
Charles Sneed says he tried to help his son turn his life around but now he will never get that chance. "It's a sad thing. It's a sad thing for my family. It's a sad thing for the girl's family. It's just sad all the way around."
