LOS ANGELES– A man who trafficked a 17-year-old girl from Nevada to Southern California and forced her to work as a prostitute has been sentenced to 87 months in federal prison.

Kenyati Jakeen Rahh-Potts, 27, of Hahira, Georgia, was sentenced on Monday by United States District Judge Michael W. Fitzgerald.

Rahh-Potts pleaded guilty in February 2015 to one count of sex trafficking.

A second defendant in the case – Tabitha Samaria Walls, 24, of Elk Grove, California – was sentenced last year to 27 months in prison after pleading guilty to conspiring to engage in sex trafficking.

According to court documents, Rahh-Potts and Walls trafficked the victim from Las Vegas to California and forced her to engage in acts of prostitution in Los Angeles, Hollywood, Pomona and Ontario over an 11-day period in 2013. Rahh-Potts and Walls, who were living in Apple Valley when they were arrested in August 2013, created online advertisements on backpage.com to prostitute the victim and then took all of the money that the child earned through the acts of prostitution.

No child should be subject to this type of abuse,” said United States Attorney Eileen M. Decker. “These defendants showed no concern for the humanity of this young person, whose body was sold via online ads strictly for their own profit.”

“The defendants in this case stole their victim's youthful innocence, as well as the money they forced her to make,” said Deirdre Fike, the Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI's Los Angeles Field Office. “The FBI is committed to ending the victimization caused by those who callously advertise and sell minors as sex slaves.”

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which receive substantial assistance from the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Tritia L. Yuen.

USAO – California, Central Updated August 12, 2016

Central District of California DOJ / 16-189 / August 12, 2016