Marietta Motel Pimp Gets 30-Year Sentence

MARIETTA, GA — A Carrollton man has pleaded guilty to criminal charges related to pimping teenage girls for sex in 2016 out of a Marietta motel, Cobb County prosecutors announced Monday. Jaylan Lamond Bennett, 21, received a 30-year sentence Friday after pleading guilty to three counts of violating Georgia's Street Gang Terrorism and Prevention Act, said John Melvin, the acting district attorney for the Cobb Judicial District, in a statement.

Bennett also pleaded guilty to two counts of pimping for persons under 18, and possession of a firearm by a first offender on probation, according to Melvin.

After accepting his plea, Cobb Superior Court Judge Ann Harris ruled that Bennett will serve 13 years in prison and the rest of his sentence on probation. He will be subject to sex-offender and gang conditions upon his release.

“While we have understood the nexus between gang activity and sex trafficking for some time now, this is one of the first times we have been able to utilize the criminal street gang act and accompanying sexual exploitation statutes together to attack this problem,” Deputy Chief Assistant District Attorney Chuck Boring said in the statement.

Boring prosecuted the case with Assistant District Attorney Courtney Veal.

How The Arrest Occurred

The charges stem from February 2016, when Bennett, a member of the Squad Life gang, exploited two girls, including a 16-year-old runaway, "at a motel on Powers Ferry Place for several days and trafficked them for sexual servitude," Melvin said in the statement.

A few weeks later, "the runaway returned home and made initial disclosures about the exploitation," Melvin said.

Marietta police detectives found advertisements and social media posts showing that the runaway teen and the other young woman were being trafficked by Bennett, and that he had a gun in his possession.

As the evidence showed, "Bennett intimidated and threatened the girls to keep them from reporting the acts to their family or the police," Melvin said.

At the time of these crimes, Bennett was on probation for a robbery charge in 2015 in Cobb County. He was arrested on these charges in Columbia, Mo., and has remained in custody since May 2016.

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