Jamie L. Cason operated a sex trafficking ring using drugs and physical violence to coerce women into prostitution, according to the Central Ohio Human Trafficking Task Force.
Cason, 27, of Columbus’ East Side, was indicted by a Franklin County grand jury in 2021 on more than 20 felony counts, including trafficking in persons, compelling prostitution, promoting prostitution, kidnapping, possession of drugs and a weapons charge.
But on Wednesday, a Franklin County judge gave Cason a total seven-year prison sentence for his guilty plea to reduced charges in three separare cases under a plea agreement.
In the trafficking ring-related case, Cason pleaded to two counts of compelling prostitution and Franklin County prosecutors dropped most of his other charges.
Past reporting:Two Columbus men indicted on charges of running a human trafficking operation
The other two cases to which Cason pleaded involved a 2021 felonious assault charge and a possession of drugs charge when he was arrested on the assault charge.
In a plea encompassing all three cases, Franklin County prosecutors and Cason’s defense attorney, Mark Collins, agreed to ask the judge for a total prison sentence of seven years.
Before sentencing Cason, Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Mark Serrott asked prosecutors if they were satisfied with the plea agreement given their knowledge of available evidence and witnesses.
“I might have given a longer sentence,” Serrott said.
Franklin County Assistant Prosecutor Daniel Meyer replied that the prosecution was satisfied with the plea agreement “based on the nature of the case as it stands today.”
Cason has about one year and 10 months of jail time credit toward time served.
Meyer said Cason operated his sex trafficking ring out of his East Side home, where he stored and packaged illegal drugs, including heroin and fentanyl. The women under Cason’s control engaged in prostitution out of Cason’s home or in nearby hotels, Meyer said.
Story continues
“Mr. Cason primarily recruited females to work for him that were already addicted to drugs and vulnerable. They stated that they met him on the street corner or at a gas station and he offered them drugs,” Meyer said. “(Multiple victims) said he created a ‘drug debt’ on the females by supplying them with their drug of choice, and in return expected the females to make money for him.”
Another drugs for sex case:72-year-old Ohio man gave drugs to addict parents, made porn with their kids for decades
Collins told the judge Cason knows he has to turn his life around as he now has three young children.
Cason’s codefendant in the prostitution-related case, 36-year-old Demetrius Alford, pleaded guilty on April 18, 2022 to one count of promoting prostitution. Serrott then sentenced Alford to three years of community control.
The Central Ohio Human Trafficking Task Force which investigated the two men includes Columbus police, Franklin County Sheriff’s office, Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigations and numerous other law enforcement agencies.
Teen sentenced to nine years after accomplice killed during a failed armed robbery
In another case before him Wednesday, Judge Serrott sentenced an 18-year-old man to an indefinite prison term of nine years to 10½ years for involuntary manslaughter and aggravated robbery in connection with the death of one of his accomplices during an armed robbery that went south.
Trevon L. Moore was 16 on Oct. 20, 2020 when he and three other young men attempted to rob a 28-year-old man at gunpoint on Nationwide Boulevard in Franklin Township. But the man they intended to rob produced his own gun and shots were exchanged, according to Franklin County Assistant Prosecutor Steven Schott.
Moore and 16-year-old Johntae Jackson were struck by gunfire, and Jackson later died at OhioHealth Grant Medical Center.
Moore pleaded guilty on Sept. 13, 2021. His prison sentence was jointly recommended as part of a plea agreement between Franklin County prosecutors and his defense attorney. Moore has over two years of jail time credit toward time served.
Another accomplice in the robbery, Marquis L. Smith, who was 18 at the time of the incident, was sentenced by Serrott on Jan. 7, 2022 to a minimum prison term of 13 years for aggravated robbery and involuntary manslaughter. Smith’s aggravated robbery charge had a criminal gang specification.
A fourth accomplice remains without criminal charges.
More court news:Former Columbus lawyer pleads guilty to killing wife in 2020 at Griggs Reservoir
@LairdWrites
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Columbus man sentenced on reduced prostitution and drug-related crimes