Man controlled ‘every move’ of his sex trafficking victims, feds say. He gets prison

A man will spend the next several decades in prison after sex trafficking five women, including a minor, and using many methods to control their “every move,” federal prosecutors say.

Lonnie Mitchell, 36 of Montgomery, Alabama, confiscated his victims’ IDs and credit cards, controlled how much and when they could eat, and encouraged them to use heroin after forcing them into prostitution, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Alabama.

A judge sentenced Mitchell to 60 years in prison after a jury found him guilty of sex trafficking by force, sex trafficking a minor, fraud, coercion and more, the office announced in a Monday, Dec. 5 news release.

“Although their physical injuries will heal, the emotional damage caused by (the women’s) suffering will last a lifetime,” U.S. Attorney Sandra J. Stewart of the Middle District of Alabama said in a statement.

Mitchell said he didn’t commit any crimes and considered the five women to be his “friends,” his attorney Preston Presley told McClatchy News in a statement on Dec. 5.

As part of his sentencing, he must pay the women nearly $1 million in restitution, according to the release.

Mitchell plans to appeal the jury’s verdicts and the judge’s sentence, Presley said.

Victims were targeted

For years, prosecutors say Mitchell carried out his sex trafficking scheme by targeting women struggling with substance abuse.

He “used unspeakable violence and manipulation of the victims’ substance abuse problems to control their every move and exploit them for his own financial gain,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke, of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, said in a statement.

Mitchell would increase and encourage the women’s heroin use to benefit his exploitation scheme, according to prosecutors.

Whoever did not follow “one of his many controlling rules” or refused to engage in prostitution services with his clients would have the highly addictive opioid withheld from them, resulting in severe and painful illness, prosecutors said.

Regular heroin use causes the body to become physically dependent on the drug, according to American Addiction Centers. Short-term withdrawal symptoms include nausea, vomiting, warmer body temperature and bone pain.

Mitchell would also enforce control over his victims with violence and threatened to share “embarrassing information, photos, or videos” to the women’s loved ones, according to prosecutors. He did so to make sure the women gave him “sufficient money from prostitution,” prosecutors said.

Mitchell’s sister, Nettisia Mitchell, was previously sentenced to 120 months confinement in connection with the case after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit sex trafficking, the release said.

She helped her brother by “harboring” a victim for prostitution services and was paid by him as a result, according to her plea agreement. Additionally, she watched her brother physically harm the woman, the document states.

McClatchy News contacted an attorney representing her for comment on Dec. 5 and didn’t immediately hear back.

Another woman in the case, Donna Emmons, was also sentenced to more than 150 months of confinement in connection with conspiring to commit sex trafficking, according to prosecutors.

McClatchy News contacted Emmons’ attorney for comment on Dec. 5 and didn’t immediately receive a response.

Presley, Mitchell’s attorney, denied that the women who were sex trafficked were victims. He said they “were independent contractors who were addicted to narcotics and well versed in prostitution before they ever encountered” his client.

In 2020, there were 10,583 human trafficking cases reported to the U.S. National Human Trafficking Hotline. Of those reported cases, 7,648 were about sex trafficking and 1,052 were about labor trafficking.

“Human trafficking is an atrocious crime that targets some of the most vulnerable members of our society, cruelly robbing them of their dignity and freedom,” Clarke said in a statement.

If you or someone you know is in immediate danger, please call 911.

To report potential trafficking situations, you can contact the national hotline at 1-888-373-7888 or chat with the online hotline.

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