NEW HAVEN -- A 31-year-old man will be sentenced on charges that he and a codefendant forced two teenage girls to work as prostitutes, according to the U.S. Attorney for the District of Connecticut's office.
Jarell Sanderson, of New Britain, faces between 10 years and life in federal prison when he is sentenced on sex trafficking of children charges on Tuesday in U.S. District Court. Sanderson, who plead guilty in January, will be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Mark R. Kravitz.
Sanderson's codefendant, Hassonah Delia, also pleaded guilty to the charges and is awaiting sentencing.
The two girls, both 14, had run away from a state Department of Children and Families (DCF) shelter in 2009, according to U.S. Attorney David Fein. After running away from the shelter, the teens went to Sanderson and Delia for help, according to court documents. Sanderson and Delia used Internet ads to sell the girls for sex at hotels and motels in Hartford and East Hartford.
Prosecutors said the teens resisted, but Sanderson threatened to kill them.
In the prosecutor's sentencing memo, Assistant U.S. Attorney David E. Novick (who prosecuted the case along with trial attorney Alecia Rewarts Wolak) described the events that transpired in July, leading up to the defendant's arrest.
"For a few horrific days in July 2009, the defendant led two scarred, abused, and naive fourteen year-old girls, runaways from DCF custody, into the commercial sex industry for his own enrichment," the prosecutor writes. "While in the defendant's mind this exploitation may be just another chapter in his life of lawlessness and amorality, his victims will forever wear the scar of his actions."
According to prosecutors, Delia convinced the two girls to join the escort business she participated in by telling them that they would make money. Delia would receive phone calls for sex and send the girls, while Sanderson posted the internet ads on the website Cityvibe, using fake names for the teens, but real pictures of them.
In court documents, the girls said they called Delia "Ma" and Sanderson "Pa". The pair would provide alcohol and marijuana for the girls before taking them to the hotels to perform sex acts, prosecutors said.
The documents show that Sanderson spent much of his time waiting for the girls to finish their appointments in off-track betting establishments that weren't far from the hotels.
Prosecutors said Sanderson had met Delia, a longtime crack dealer in need of a new supplier, through a drug deal and convinced her to become part of his escort business. Delia would take appointments herself, performing sex acts for money, but also helped Sanderson set-up appointments for other girls, including the two 14-year-olds. The relationship eventually deteriorated leading up to their September arrests.
Prosecutors said Delia was also a "veteran of the DCF who was lured into prostitution," and then enlisted by Sanderson to intimidate the other girls. Meanwhile, Sanderson told police that all he cared about were the "dollar signs."
East Hartford police and the FBI led a joint investigation that snagged Sanderson and Delia. Police gathered evidence including internet and phone records showing the deals that Sanderson set up, as well as interaction between the pair while Delia and the victims were at area hotels.
Sanderson's attorney, Sebastian O. DeSantis, of New London, asked in his sentencing memo that Sanderson receive a non-guideline sentence of 10 years or, alternatively, a downward departure.
DeSantis argued his defendant should receive a sentence similar to that of convicted Connecticut sex traffickers Dennis Paris (30 years), Brian Forbes (13 years) and Corey Davis (24 years). He argued that a guidelines sentence, which could be as much as life in prison, would be unreasonable. But prosecutors said that it is not logical to base Sanderson's sentencing on three completely separate defendants with different circumstances surrounding their cases.
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