A Jamaica man pleaded guilty to sex trafficking for forcing a teenage girl into prostitution and collecting the profits made from the victim’s activities during her tortuous ordeal, Queens District Attorney Richard Brown announced Thursday.
Lance Hamilton, 27, of Foch Boulevard pleaded guilty Wednesday to one-count of sex trafficking before Acting Queens Supreme Court Justice Peter F. Vallone Jr., who indicated that he will sentence Hamilton to five to ten years in prison on Feb. 25.
In december of 2015, Hamilton began a relationship with the victim who was then 15 years old, according to the charges. The defendant met the girl through one of their associates.
Subsequently, from February to April of 2016, Hamilton forced the teen who had turned 16 into having sex dates in exchange for money that he pocketed. To increase the youngsters earnings, Hamilton set daily quotas for her to meet and posted explicit advertisements of the victim on the Backpage.com website. Hamilton also forced the teen to walk alongside Sutphin Boulevard to solicit additional customers, according to the charges.
When the young woman refused to work for Hamilton, he responded by repeatedly punching and choking her, resulting in severe bruising. On one occasion, the defendant pulled a gun on her inside his residence, according to the charges. Hamilton finally freed the teen in April of 2016 when she became pregnant.
“In pleading guilty, the defendant admitted to coercing this young girl into prostitution,” Brown said. “The victim suffered extensively at the hands of the defendant and will have to deal with the trauma she endured for the rest of her life. Sex trafficking is abhorrent and we must see to it that individuals who facilitate such heinous crimes are punished.”
