North Park Gang Member Sentenced To Prison For Sex Trafficking

SAN DIEGO, CA — A member of a North Park-based gang who was previously convicted in a racketeering enterprise involving sex trafficking was sentenced Monday to more than a dozen years in prison for additional sex trafficking crimes, including prostituting a 17-year-old girl.

Jonathan Devon Price, 30, also known as "Lil' Ty," pleaded guilty last year to a federal sex trafficking of a minor charge for prostituting the teenage girl in San Diego County, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

As part of the plea agreement, he also admitted to coercing a woman to engage in commercial sex acts, prosecutors said.

The crimes occurred while Price was on supervised release from his previous trafficking case, in which he pleaded guilty to taking part in the transportation of women from San Diego to other locations for the purposes of prostitution. He was sentenced to two years in prison and three years of supervised release in that case.

The U.S. Attorney's Office said that Price also was convicted in state court of battery involving one of his trafficking victims.

In addition to a 142-month sentence in the latest sex trafficking case, Price was sentenced to 24 months in prison for violating the conditions of his supervised release. However, half of that sentence will be served concurrently with the 142-month term.

— City News Service