Man Faces Several Life Terms In Child Sex Trafficking Case
FORT LAUDERDALE (CBSMiami) – Most teenage girls go out on dates.
Instead, a 20-year-old Fort Lauderdale man allegedly took three teenage girls out on "dates".
These "dates" were appointments for paid sex.
The Sun-Sentinel reports DeAngelo Jones was indicted Tuesday on federal charges of trafficking children for sex, according to court records.
Jones "pimped out" three girls aged 12, 14 and 15.
The 15-year-old claimed to be Jones' girlfriend. The two younger girls had run away from a shelter in Key West and joined up with the older girl, who the 14-year-old knew from school.
According to the girls, Jones had sex with each of them before they started working for him, they said.
On May 23, an undercover Miami-Dade police officer arranged a date with the 15-year-old after seeing her picture in an online listing. He called a cellphone number in the listing to set up a meeting in Fort Lauderdale.
When money changed hands, the teenager was arrested, the police report stated.
She explained that the cellphone, registered to a Donte Jones, belonged to Deangelo Jones, whom she had known for about three months. She said she paid the phone bill from her prostitution proceeds.
The girls said they charged their prostitution clients between $50 and $120 for various sex acts and that they turned over their earnings to Jones.
To get to their "dates", a man identified only as "Nate" sometimes drove the girls to and from hotels where they would meet their clients. Jones would remain outside to provide security. They had up to five "dates" per night, the girls explained.
The teens were urged to arrange their own dates on the cellphone either verbally or by texting because Jones thought clients would be scared off by a man's voice arranging dates.
Investigators interviewed the 12-year-old June 14 and learned that Jones took all three girls shopping and bought them hair products, jewelry and makeup. Jones also provided condoms for use during prostitution dates.
The 12-year-old left the group at one point when police showed up at a hotel looking for a "runaway minor."
The 14-year-old was interviewed June 18 and she explained how Jones abused the girls.
She said Jones threw her against a mirror in a hotel room for "being disrespectful." On another occasion he punched her five times in the chest and stripped her naked for refusing to go on a date with a client. That's when she left the group, she said.
The 15-year-old was thrown against a hotel mirror, shattering it, for not charging a client, the investigative report stated.
Jones was arrested June 28. He is charged with five counts relating to conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of children by force, fraud or coercion and attempting to establish peonage, slavery, involuntary servitude and human trafficking, according to court records.
If convicted, Jones faces several life prison terms.
The investigation was part of the Department of Justice's Innocence Lost National Initiative.
