Courtesy of Backpage.com
The two men posted prostitution ads on the website backpage.com
By Forum Staff
A 21-year-old Queens man has been sentenced to up to three years in prison after pleading guilty to promoting prostitution charges. His co-defendant, who pleaded guilty on the eve of trial, was previously sentenced to up to 7 ½ years in prison. The two men, both from Jamaica, Queens, were convicted of coercing a then 16-year-old teenager into having sex with strangers for money in September 2014. “Sex trafficking is a scourge on our society. It is modern-day slavery and must end now,” said District Attorney Brown. “In this case, a 16-year-old girl was forced into prostitution by these two men. They used threats, intimidation and physical violence to make this youngster perform sex acts on strangers. State prison time for these two men is more than warranted and should send a clear message to others that such crimes will not be tolerated in Queens.”
The defendants are identified as Robert Homer, 24, of 139th Street in Jamaica, Queens, and Kenyon Sultan, 21, of 147th Street, also in Jamaica. In September, Sultan pleaded guilty to third-degree promoting prostitution before Queens Supreme Court Justice Richard L. Buchter, who sentenced Sultan to 1 to 3 years in prison. Homer, who pleaded guilty to sex trafficking and third-degree promoting prostitution also in September, was sentenced in October to 2 ½ to 7 ½ years in prison by Justice Buchter.
According to the charges, the then-16-year-old teen girl was introduced to the defendant Homer on September 4, 2014, by a 17-year-old girl he was pimping at the time. Homer and Sultan then took the victim to a hotel room on North Conduit Avenue and told her that she had to work as a prostitute for them and give the money she earned to Homer. While the teen had sex with men for money, defendant Sultan would wait in the bathroom.
According to the complaint, Homer brought the victim and the other girl to several hotels in Queens and Nassau Counties between September 4, 2014, and September 11, 2014, and made them have sexual intercourse and oral sex with numerous men in exchange for money. All the money they received was given to Homer. Specifically, Homer told the victim to make at least $500 a day prostituting herself and to call him “Daddy.”
Homer also posted prostitution ads on backpage.com. When the victim asked to leave, indicating she wanted to stop prostituting herself, Homer stated that she couldn’t and brought her back to the North Conduit hotel where he or Sultan took turns sleeping so they could keep watch on her and make sure that she did not leave. On one occasion, when the victim asked to leave the hotel room, Sultan told her that he had to go with her. On another occasion, the victim observed Homer slap the 17-year-old girl because she was talking on-line to another pimp, which was against his rules, and which caused the victim to fear him. On September 11, 2014, an undercover New York City Police Department detective responded to a prostitution advertisement on backpage.com and was directed to the North Conduit hotel where he met the 16-year-old victim and the 17-year-old girl, both of whom agreed to have sexual intercourse with him in exchange for $100 cash each. Once inside the hotel room, both girls were arrested. Homer and Sultan, who were found hiding in the room’s bathroom, were also arrested. A check of the hotel records revealed that the room had been rented to a Mustafa Stewart and that Homer was in possession of photo identification in that name.
In pleading guilty, Homer allocuted to promoting both the 16-year-old victim and the 17- year-old girl as prostitutes and admitted to having sex with the 16-year-old. Prosecutors didn’t prosecute the 16-year-old victim and charges against the 17-year-old girl were dismissed. District Attorney Brown identified the defendant in a separate sex trafficking case as Quayshaun Canady, 24, of 98th Street in the Jamaica section of Queens. Canady pleaded guilty to sex trafficking and the judge has said Canady will be sentenced to 2 to 6 years in prison in January. According to the indictment, between August 9, 2015, and August 28, 2015, defendant Canady forced an 18-year-old girl into prostitution and pimped out a 14-year-old girl.
Canady posted pictures of the teenager on the internet, advertising her as a prostitute.
