16-year-old girl escapes man accused of sex trafficking her by calling 911, feds say
A teenage girl escaped the man accused of forcing her into prostitution a few days after her 16th birthday, according to federal prosecutors. Now he’s going to prison.
When the teen told Gabriel Joseph Gonzalez “she was leaving him and no longer wanted to work as a prostitute,” he threatened her, resulting in her calling 911 on Jan. 26, 2023, court documents say.
The San Diego Police Department rescued the girl that day, according to prosecutors.
Gonzalez, 20, of Pomona, began sex trafficking the teen when she was 15 and a “runaway,” prosecutors said. He had known the girl since she was 13, they said.
Gonzalez persuaded her to leave a group home she was living at in Los Angeles County and forced her to “engage in commercial sex work” for his “financial benefit,” prosecutors said.
In January 2023, he made the girl walk two streets in San Diego and National City, a suburb of San Diego, to engage in commercial sex acts for seven days in a row, except on her 16th birthday when he let her take the day “off,” according to court documents.
Now, a judge has sentenced Gonzalez to 12 years in prison on a charge of sex trafficking a minor, the U.S Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California announced in a Feb. 13 news release.
“The victim’s courage to call 911 in this case was extraordinary,” U.S. Attorney Tara McGrath said in a statement.
McClatchy News contacted Martin G. Molina, Gonzalez’s court-appointed defense attorney, for comment on Feb. 13 and didn’t receive an immediate response.
In sentencing documents filed on Gonzalez’s behalf, Molina wrote that the teen was “not someone (Gonzalez) targeted for prostitution” and that his client was friends with her before “any pimping.”
“In his mind, this was not a form of abuse but a form of both making some money. And he pursued her for this,” Molina said.
Molina wrote his client had a “terrible childhood and adolescence” and argued that if he had more stability in his youth and environment, he would have had a “moral compass to not even consider this.”
Meanwhile, ahead of his sentencing, prosecutors wrote in a memo that Gonzalez’s “continued harm, control and manipulation” of the girl “continued even despite incarceration.”
Sex trafficking attempts from jail
After Gonzalez pleaded guilty in the case in July 2023, prosecutors said he tried to sex traffic the teen while he was in jail.
He spoke with the teen over the phone through a jail call system, prosecutors wrote in sentencing documents.
In one call, he told her “their activities do not need to stop just because he is in jail” and “instructed (her) to get some money,” according to prosecutors.
When U.S. District Judge Larry Alan Burns issued Gonzalez’s prison sentence, he noted Gonzalez’s “absolute lack of remorse” in continuing to try to sex traffic the teen while incarcerated, the attorney’s office said.
“Human trafficking and sexual exploitation of a minor is inexcusable,” California’s Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a statement.
Pomona, where Gonzalez is from, is about 30 miles east of Los Angeles.
Human trafficking in the US
Human trafficking is a “crime of exploitation,” according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Traffickers profit off their victims by forcing them to engage in sex acts or do labor.
“With an estimated 27.6 million victims worldwide at any given time, human traffickers prey on people of all ages, backgrounds, and nationalities, exploiting them for their own profit,” officials said.
Industries where trafficking victims are forced to work include hospitality, restaurants, agriculture, construction, landscaping, factories, home care, salons, massage parlors, retail, janitorial and many more, officials said.
In the U.S., children in welfare or juvenile justice systems, such as foster care, are the most vulnerable to human trafficking, officials said.
Children and teens experiencing homelessness, people seeking asylum, people who struggle with substance abuse, migrant laborers, people who identify as part of the LGBTQ community and victims of domestic violence are also more vulnerable to becoming victims of human trafficking
“Traffickers can be strangers, acquaintances, or even family members, and they prey on the vulnerable and on those seeking opportunities to build for themselves a brighter future,” officials said.
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