DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) — A Dallas man was sentenced to over three decades in federal prison after he was convicted in August last year of sex trafficking a 14-year-old girl and an adult woman.
Anthony Lennell Acy, was convicted by a federal jury in August 2021 on one count of child sex trafficking and one count of sex trafficking by force, fraud, and coercion. On June 17, 2022, U.S. District Judge Jane J. Boyle sentenced him to 365 months in prison.
According to evidence presented at the trial, Acy trafficked at least two victims out of hotels in Dallas and in California. One of those victims was a 14-year-old girl, a runaway from McKinney.
The 14-year-old victim testified that Acy approached her in a parking lot next to a hotel a few weeks after she ran away from home. She said that Acy told her she could model for his clothing line. He then took her to a hotel and offered her dinner and a place to stay for the night.
Later, the girl said, Acy forced her to take ecstasy pills, forced her to engage in commercial sex in Dallas and California, and physically assaulted her several times.
The adult victim testified that Acy first made contact with her on Facebook, claiming he wanted to be her boyfriend. After she went to Dallas to visit Acy, he took her cell phone and car keys and forced her to engage in commercial sex in order to pay back a supposed debt.
The woman was trafficked first in Dallas, then in Austin and California. She said that Acy forced her to earn over $1,000 a day and turn over all of the money to him.
Both victims testified that Acy used violence and intimidation to coerce them, repeatedly beating them, threatening them with knives and guns, and threatening to kill them and their families if they tried to call the police.
Agents working with the North Texas Trafficking Task Force rescued the victims from a hotel in Dallas and arrested Acy as he left the hotel parking lot.
Over the course of the investigation, detectives reviewed Acy’s phone, hotel, and financial records, online advertisements, and Facebook posts that all corroborated the victims’ accounts.
Acy will spend up to about 30 years behind bars.