SAN DIEGO (CNS) - A man who attempted to recruit a 16-year-old girl to become a prostitute was sentenced Wednesday to 12 years in federal prison.
Keenon Green, 35, was arrested at a park in Santee, where prosecutors say he had planned to meet up with a teenage girl and take her to Orange County to work as a prostitute.
However, the girl he knew as "Lexi" was actually an undercover San Diego County sheriff's deputy, according to court documents.
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Prosecutors say Green began conversing with Lexi over Instagram in December 2021. In their messages, the pair discussed Lexi working for Green as a prostitute, which would involve her working the street until Green could secure her a fake ID in order to begin posting online sex ads.
In one exchange, Lexi mentions that she is 16, in high school, and was late in responding to Green's messages because she was working on her biology homework.
The U.S. Attorney's Office alleges Green sought to pick up Lexi and have her earn him $1,000 "before returning her to San Diego on Monday to attend high school."
After reviewing his social media activity, it was revealed that Green had messaged several other Instagram users with proposals to work for him as prostitutes, according to prosecutors, who wrote in a sentencing memorandum that Green spent eight years in prison for burglary and false imprisonment convictions, and began conversing with Lexi about four months after he was released.
Green was convicted by a San Diego federal jury in February of one count each of attempted sex trafficking of children and attempted enticement of a minor.
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