Man who lured teen into prostitution — and told her to keep quiet to cops — sentenced to 20 years
A 21-year-old was sentenced Friday to 20 years to life in prison for sex trafficking a minor and ordering her to not report it to law enforcement.
Xavier Atu Collins, then 20, began communicating with a 16-year-old girl on Instagram in January 2023, according to a release by the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office. A jury convicted Collins after prosecutors said he groomed the girl into joining what Collins called his “program” by telling her over several weeks that she could find success by being a prostitute for him.
Judge Michael Bowman handed down the sentence in Sacramento Superior Court; Collins will also have to register as a sex offender, prosecutors said.
Collins “presented himself as a supportive mentor” to the victim, the District Attorney’s Office said, but soon began threatening and physically assaulting the girl when she did not comply with his orders.
Detectives from the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office made contact with the girl one night when she was in an area known for high prostitution activity, and she and her parents revealed Collins’ trafficking actions.
Collins later found out about the girl telling law enforcement about criminal activity, prosecutors said, and he ordered her to not cooperate with an investigation or testify against him in court.
He was convicted by a jury in April for human sex trafficking of a minor by force or violence, persuading a minor to engage in commercial sex acts, pandering by encouraging and preventing a victim from making a report.
Through an investigation into Collins, sheriff’s detectives discovered he had forced a 15-year-old girl into prostitution in a similar way, as well as his 18-year-old girlfriend, even when she was pregnant with his child.
