Crime & Safety
Man Sentenced To Prison For Human Trafficking In Monterey Co.
A jury found Jerry Nickens Stringer Jr., 29, guilty after listening to his two teenage victims testify against him in court, officials said.
MONTEREY COUNTY, CA — The Monterey County District Attorney's Office announced last week that a Seaside man was sentenced to 30 years in prison for numerous offenses including two counts of human trafficking. On June 12, 2016, a jury found 29-year-old Jerry Nickens Stringer Jr. guilty after listening to his two teenage victims testify against him in court, prosecutors said.
They testified that on June 9, 2015, when they were 17 years old, they accepted a ride from Stringer to drive from Sacramento to the Monterey Peninsula where they would visit friends and go to the beach. Instead, Stringer drove the girls to East Market Street and Kern Avenue in Salinas and coerced them to walk the streets and make money, prosecutors said. He also took them to his mother's apartment in Seaside
where he photographed the victims in sexual positions.
Stringer then used the photographs to create advertisements soliciting sex on a website called Backpage. Stringer then rented a Seaside motel room for the victims to exchange sex for money from people who answered the ad, prosecutors said. The victims testified that one young man who answered the ad bought them food and offered to help them escape.
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The following day, when Stringer took the girls back to the area of East Market Street in Salinas to make money, the girls called the young man. He told them to go to Hartnell College to hide among the students until they could get help. Once at the college, a family friend picked them up, prosecutors said.
According to prosecutors, Stringer received a term of 15 years and four months in state prison for two counts of human trafficking, two counts of pandering, two counts of possession of child pornography, one count of
using a minor to perform commercial sex acts, and two counts of sexual exploitation of a child.
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Stringer's sentence was then doubled due to a prior conviction for robbery under California's three strikes law, bringing his sentence to 30 years and eight months. Stringer must also register as a sex offender for the rest of his life. He was also given a restraining order prohibiting him from contacting the victims for 10 years, prosecutors said.
Anyone who suspects human trafficking activity can report it by calling the National Human Trafficking Hotline at (888) 373-7888.
By Bay City News
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