Woman gets 17 years for trafficking teens
Aug. 31—A Stockton, California, woman who once lived in Medford will serve more than 17 years in federal prison for her role in the sex trafficking of underage girls to Northern California and Southern Oregon — at one point pretending to be the mother of one of her victims in an attempt to thwart a Medford police investigation.
Dawniel Lea Santangelo, 44, was sentenced to 17 years and seven months in prison Monday in U.S. District Court in Sacramento after a jury found her guilty of multiple counts of sex trafficking, conspiracy and transportation of a minor with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity.
Her August trial surrounded the trafficking of three girls for commercial sex acts between September 2018 and May 2019, when the victims were 15, 16 and 17 years old.
Santangelo and her accomplice, Lucious James Roy Jr. — now serving a 17-1/2 year sentence after pleading guilty to his role in the federal human trafficking case last year — would entice "vulnerable, insecure kids with known family conflict" by giving them drugs and alcohol and creating a "party atmosphere," according to a release issued by the U.S. Attorney's Office Eastern District of California and Santangelo's sentencing brief filed last week in U.S. District Court.
In early May 2019, Santangelo and Roy recruited the youngest of the three victims, a 15-year-old runaway from the Modesto, California, area. They drove her to Medford and harbored the teen in a Medford motel room. Federal prosecutors described Medford as Santangelo's former hometown.
After a few days in Medford, the teen contacted her family for help, and the victim's mother called Medford police.
At 5:13 a.m. May 10, 2019, Medford police rushed the door of a room at the Motel 6 on Biddle Road, arrested Santangelo and Roy, and connected the 15- and 18-year-old victims with resources through the nonprofit Community Works, according to an earlier news report.
Late the night before the arrest, Medford police had stopped Roy and the 15-year-old victim, but Santangelo intervened, according to the sentencing brief filed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Cameron L. Desmond.
"When Medford police stopped Roy late at night in an area known for prostitution with 15-year-old Victim C, the defendant pretended to be the 15-year-old's mother, thereby preventing law enforcement from identifying and helping Victim C," according to Desmond.
One of the victims testified at trial how she was pressured to have sex with Roy while Santangelo waited for her in a hotel room bathroom.
They presented messages Santangelo sent to the victims that included phrases such as "Come fw us and I bet daddy have you right," "Baby you need to come home to Daddy. He'll take care of you," and "Let's go get this money for daddy so we can all shine."
A jury found Santangelo guilty of all five counts against her in the trafficking conspiracy Aug. 17. U.S. District Judge Kimberly J. Mueller sentenced Santangelo Monday.
In a news release issued Monday, Phillip Talbert, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of California, called Santangelo's conduct "egregious."
"She played an essential part in the conspiracy recruiting the girls with false promises of freedom and fun," Talbert stated. "Once she reeled them in, she quickly put them to work exploiting three children over hundreds of miles for over nine months."
Prosecuting the case involved resources from Medford police, the Jackson County District Attorney's Office, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Stockton police and the San Joaquin District Attorney's Office.
Reach Mail Tribune web editor Nick Morgan at 541-776-4471 or nmorgan@rosebudmedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MTwebeditor.
