Riverside County Man Gets Nearly 22 Years For Sex Trafficking Minors

RIVERSIDE, CA — A Riverside County man was sentenced Friday to nearly 22 years in federal prison for trafficking underage girls for the purpose of prostitution on "Fig," the notorious stretch of Figueroa Street in South Los Angeles known as a haven for commercial sex workers and customers.

Christian Brandon O'Neal Scurlock, 23, of Moreno Valley, pleaded guilty last year in Los Angeles to a single federal count of sex trafficking of a minor.

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Along with the 262-month prison term, Scurlock was placed on lifetime supervised release and ordered to pay restitution of $159,246, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office

Prosecutors said that in April 2024, officers with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department stopped Scurlock, who had been seen grabbing a young girl by her neck and pushing her into a Mercedes-Benz. When officers approached, they found two minor girls, ages 13 and 16, inside the car. The officers said they saw several condoms inside the vehicle in plain view.

A records check revealed the girls had been reported as missing juveniles out of California. Both girls told police that Scurlock had brought them to Las Vegas from Los Angeles to provide prostitution services as underage commercial sex workers and that they usually worked on "Fig," referring to a 3.5-mile stretch of Figueroa Street from Gage Avenue south to Imperial Highway in Los Angeles. Scurlock required both victims to give him the money they earned from prostitution, federal prosecutors said.

The U.S. Attorney's Office said further investigation revealed that Scurlock advertised himself on Instagram as a pimp. A review of text messages from the victims' phones corroborated that Scurlock acted as their pimp and had them working as commercial sex workers on the Figueroa corridor, according to prosecutors.

Also, in March 2024, police camera footage on the Figueroa corridor showed Scurlock appearing to scream at the 13-year-old, take her clothes, and leave the area, abandoning her completely naked on the street, papers filed in Los Angeles federal court show.

According to his plea agreement, Scurlock provided the minor victims with marijuana and alcohol as well as food, clothing, phones, transportation, and housing. At the time he found the 13-year-old girl, she had run away from a group home and was living without stable housing. The plea agreement also states that Scurlock had sex with her once.

Scurlock was arrested on Aug. 7, 2024, and ordered jailed without bond by a federal magistrate judge in downtown Los Angeles.

In September 2024, federal, county and city officials in Los Angeles announced the Figueroa Human Trafficking Initiative, a partnership aimed at disrupting human trafficking and the sexual exploitation of minors on the Figueroa corridor, long known as a haven for prostitution.