A 33-year-old man was sentenced to 19 years and seven months in prison for sex trafficking two minors at the Desert Star Motel in 2019.
Darnell Bernard Edwards pleaded guilty to charges in December.
According to the US DOJ officials and court filings, Edwards took two underage girls to the motel and other locations in California and ordered them to make $500 a day through prostitution.
These happened in April and May 2019.
Documents state that the girls had the letter “D” and a crown tattooed on their bodies, indicating Edwards pimped them.
On January 2021, after two years of investigation, authorities raided the Desert Star Motel.
Kern County District Attorney Cynthia Zimmer called the motel “a modern day brothel” following the raid.
