TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) — A man has been sentenced to spend 25 years in federal prison for sex trafficking minors in Tallahassee.
According to Lawrence Keefe, the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Florida, Dishay Henderson, 36, was sentenced last week following a January jury verdict finding him guilty of enticement of a minor to engage in prostitution and two counts of sex trafficking of a minor.
“Sex trafficking of minors has absolutely no place in our society,” said U.S. Attorney Keefe. “It is a shameful, despicable practice, and the United States Attorney’s Office is committed to working closely with our federal, state, and local partners to pursue justice on behalf of the victims of this heinous crime.”
According to court documents, Henderson used his Tallahassee home in early 2018 as a location for commercial sex trafficking and drug activity.
The victims told police that Henderson, known to them as "Speedy" or "Black," allowed them to stay at his home on Georgia Street, but only if they brought in money. According to complaint documents, that meant the teens were forced to participate in prostitution.
Documents say that Henderson not only forced the victim to "sell their bodies," but also made them have sex with him on multiple occasions in exchange for drugs.
"He specifically harbored and solicited a 16-year-old girl, prostituting her to others for personal and financial gain," a press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office read. "At times, his methods were violent and aggressive."
When investigators spoke with Henderson in March 2018, he told them that he denied ever touching them, smoking drugs around them, or charging them to stay in his home. He went on to say that he allowed the victims to stay at his home for free "out of the kindness of his heart."
In announcing the sentence, Chief United States District Judge Mark E. Walker noted that the sentence was, in part, aimed to deter others from “preying on the most vulnerable among us.”
