ALBANY, Ga. — Two people are now headed to prison after pleading guilty to trafficking a runaway teen girl at hotels in Macon and Warner Robins in 2016.
According to a release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office Middle District of Georgia, Demetrius Hunter will spend 20 years in federal prison followed by 25 years of supervised release.
His co-defendant, Tamara Taylor, will spend 5 years in federal prison followed by 15 years of supervised release.
Those guilty pleas are the result of a case that started back in 2016.
Hunter met the victim, a 15-year-old girl that had recently run away from a group foster home, at the Bridgeview hotel in Macon. She was there looking for her sister, and had been abandoned by the person who drove her there.
The teen met Hunter’s co-defendant, Tamara Taylor, and told her her age and why she was in Macon. Taylor invited the teen to her hotel room, where she introduced the victim and Hunter.
Hunter invited the teen to travel and stay with them, but said she would have to make money. The teen didn’t understand how she was expected to make money.
The pair took the teen to a hotel in Warner Robins and listed her on Backpage, a site commonly used for listing sex acts. The teen stayed with them for 13 days until law enforcement found and returned her to the group foster home.
“Hunter and Taylor’s shocking manipulation of this runaway child—forcing her to perform sex acts in exchange for food and shelter—is pure evil. Our office will pursue justice for those who sexually traffic and abuse children,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Peter D. Leary.
