Republished December 06, 2017 - 12:18 PM
Original Publication Date December 06, 2017 - 10:56 AM
BRIDGEPORT, Conn. - A Connecticut woman won't serve any more time behind bars for her involvement in the sex trafficking of a teenager who was tattooed with a bar code to show that she was property.
Neshaya Dozier, 27, was sentenced Wednesday to the nine months she spent in federal prison and the seven months she has lived in a reintegration facility since her arrest.
The Bridgeport woman pleaded guilty in September to a federal charge of conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of a minor.
She was found in May, 2016 with the 16-year-old victim inside an East Hartford hotel room.
Prosecutors, in asking for a 3-year prison sentence, wrote that the teenager was covered in bruises and had been tattooed on her neck with a bar code and the words "King Sin," a reference to Darryl Morris, a pimp and Dozier's boyfriend.
Prosecutors said the victim told police she had been forced her to get the tattoo a few weeks before she was found.
"One of Mr. Morris's friends drew the tattoo," prosecutors wrote in their pre-sentencing memorandum. "(The victim) understood the bar code to mean that she was Mr. Morris's property."
The defence, in arguing for a sentence of time served, said Morris ran the prostitution ring and Dozier also was a victim.
Prosecutors acknowledged that Dozier worked as a prostitute for Morris, but said she also handled many of the logistical details of the victim's sexual exploitation, including posting online ads for her services.
They said the girl was 15-years-old when the pair began transporting her across the Northeast to have sex with up to 10 men a day.
Prosecutors said police found Dozier and the girl after the teen was able to get hold of Dozier's cellphone and call her mother to report where she was and that she was frightened.
The teen told police that Morris had been beating her because she was not making enough money
Morris, who also entered into a plea deal with the government, is scheduled to be sentenced in January.
News from © The Associated Press, 2017