18-year-old woman pleads guilty to sex trafficking

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UPDATE: March 12, 2013

Man gets 10 years in Memphis sex-trafficking case:

A federal judge in Memphis has sentenced a man to 10 years in prison on a sex trafficking conviction.

The Commercial Appeal reported prosecutors and the defense agreed in recommending the term, which is below federal guidelines for the offense.

Vincent Jones was sentenced for conspiring with his girlfriend, Kala Bray, to traffic teenage girls. Both sides said the mastermind was Bray, who is serving a 14-year prison sentence.

Prosecutors said Jones and Bray told two girls, who were 15 and 16 years old in 2001, they were taking them to a Houston water park before pressing them into prostitution.

At his hearing, Jones' shirt was wet after another inmate jumped him and water was used to wash away pepper spray used to break up the fight.


MEMPHIS, Tenn. Nov 4th, 2011(AP) - Federal prosecutors say an 18-year-old woman faces life in prison after pleading guilty to taking two teenagers to Houston and forcing them to have sex for money.

Edward Stanton, the U.S. attorney for West Tennessee, said Friday that Kala Bray pleaded guilty to conspiracy to engage in child sex trafficking.

Bray and a male co-defendant recruited two Memphis-area teens and lured them to Houston with promises of a trip to a water park. The teens were given drugs including Oxycontin and Xanax and were made to engage in sex acts for money in Memphis and Houston.

Bray faces up to life in prison for the conspiracy charge at sentencing in February. Other charges related to the conspiracy were dismissed as part of the plea.

UPDATE: Oct 11, 2012
Kala Bray, 19, of Memphis, was sentenced today to 168 months in prison for conspiracy to engage in child sex trafficking and sex trafficking by force, fraud, and coercion.

The sentence was announced by U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Tennessee Edward L. Stanton, III; Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; and Special Agent in Charge of the Memphis FBI Field Office Aaron T. Ford.

According to the indictment, in the summer of 2011, Bray and her co-defendant, Vincent Jones, lured two Memphis-area juveniles to Houston with promises of a trip to a water park. Bray and Jones supplied the teens with drugs, including Oxycontin and Xanax, and made the juveniles engage in commercial sex acts both in Memphis and Houston. Bray pleaded guilty to the sex trafficking conspiracy on November 4, 2011.

Vincent Jones, Bray’s co-defendant, pleaded guilty to the same conspiracy charge on July 7, 2012, and is set to be sentenced on December 14, 2012.

In addition to 168 months in prison, U.S. District Judge Samuel H. Mays, Jr. sentenced Bray to five years of supervised release and a special assessment of $100. As a condition of her supervised release, Bray must register as a sex offender. Parole is not a possibility in the federal system.

“Miss Bray’s actions were both shocking and reprehensible, and her sentence reflects this community’s disgust for those who participate in child sex trafficking,” said U.S. Attorney Stanton. “This office has zero tolerance for any form of sex trafficking, and we will continue to hold traffickers accountable to the full extent of the law. Today, the children who were victimized and their families can know that justice was done.”

“Kala Bray prostituted trafficked children, tricking them and making them suffer abuse for her personal gain,” said Assistant Attorney General Breuer. “Though nothing can undo the damage Bray caused, this sentence underscores our continued commitment to protecting our nation’s children and punishing those who would do them harm.”

“Today’s sentencing is a result of the dedicated efforts of the FBI and our law enforcement partners and demonstrates that we will not tolerate the exploitation of minors,” said Aaron T. Ford, Special Agent in Charge of the Memphis Division of the FBI. “Human trafficking investigations are a priority for the FBI, and we will continue to target those who victimize children and seek to profit from sex trafficking.”

The case was investigated by the FBI working in conjunction with the Memphis Police Department and the Bartlett, Tennessee Police Department. FBI Special Agent Michael Saltsman was the lead investigator on the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Skrmetti and Trial Attorney Mike Grant from the U.S. Department of Justice Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS) prosecuted the case.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ offices and CEOS, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.