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from www.chicagotribune.com – A federal jury convicted a Chicago man of running a sex trafficking ring in which nine victims were forced into prostitution, officials said today.
Datqunn Sawyer [pictured], 32, was convicted after the jury deliberated for several hours beginning Friday afternoon, according to a press release issued by Patrick J. Fitzgerald, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois.
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Sawyer was convicted after a two-week trial of 10 counts of sex trafficking by force, fraud and coercion and sex trafficking of minors and conspiracy to engage in sex trafficking of minors by force.
During the trial, officials said that Sawyer acted as a pimp who preyed on vulnerable victims including girls who were young, homeless, or runaways, officials said.
Officials said eight of the victims were between 13 and 17. Sawyer used violence and threats of violence to exploit them sexually, knowing they were minors, officials said.
Six victims testified during the trial that Sawyer recruited and groomed the victims by initially concealed that he was a pimp but promised “riches and glamour” if they stayed with him, officials said. He ran the ring between 2006 and 2010, officials said.
He convinced the victims that he loved them and wanted to be in a long-term romantic relationship, according to officials. Sawyer also used threats and beatings to enforce a rigid set of rules that left him in control of the victims, officials said.
To maintain control he had sex with the victims and impregnated three of them, officials said.
Sawyer even gave the victims nicknames beginning with “P” including Precious, Paradise, Pooh, Peaches, because his own nickname was “P-Child”. He also had them call him “Daddy” and had his nickname tattooed on their arms. If they spoke back to him or disrespected him he threatened them or beat them, officials said.
He also forbade them from speaking with or even looking at other men except for clients, officials said.
Two other men, Kevin Sharp, 53, and Waymond Orr, 33, who worked as drivers and security guards for Sawyer pleaded guilty before Sawyer’s trial.
Sawyer faces a maximum sentence of life in prison when he is sentenced on Feb. 23, 2012, officials said.