Seaside man convicted of human trafficking
UPDATE: 29-year-old Jerry Nickens Stringer, of Seaside, was sentenced to a term of thirty years and 8 months for two counts of human trafficking, two counts of pandering, two counts of possession of child pornography, one count of using a minor to perform commercial sex acts and two counts of sexual exploitation of a child.
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Monday a Monterey County jury found 28-year-old Jerry Nickens Stringer, of Seaside guilty of two counts of human trafficking, two counts of pandering, two counts of possession of child pornography, one count of using a minor to perform commercial sex acts and two counts of sexual exploitation of a child.
The victims said the crimes were committed from June 9, 2015 to June 11, 2015. Two 17-year-old girls from Sacramento accepted a ride from Stringer, “a friend of a friend,” to go to the beach on the Monterey Peninsula and to visit friends. Instead Stringer drove the girls to East Market Street and Kern Avenue in Salinas and forced them to walk the streets and offer sex for money.
Stringer moved the girls to his mother’s apartment in Seaside where he took pictures of the victims in sexual positions. Stringer used the photographs to create advertisements soliciting for sex on a website called “Backpage.” Stringer rented a motel room in Seaside for the victims to exchange sex for money.
Both victims told the jury one young man who answered the advertisement bought them food and offered to help them get away. The following day, when Stringer transported the girls back to East Market Street area, the girls called the young man. The man told them to walk to Hartnell College to hide with the other students until help arrived. A family friend answered their call and picked them up from the college.
The victims did not call police until one of the girls told a counselor at Planned Parenthood one week later.
Stringer was arrested by the Seaside Police Department on August 16, 2015. Pornographic images were found on his cell phone.
Stringer had a prior conviction for robbery committed on May 14, 2009, which constitutes a felony strike prior under the three strikes law.
Stringer is scheduled to be in court on August 3, 2017. He faces a maximum sentence of 40 years 8 months in the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
