News Americas, MIAMI, FL, Weds. Oct. 1, 2014: A Jamaican man will have to spend the next 27 years of his life in prison for his role in a sex trafficking operation.
Damion St. Patrick Baston, 37, of New York, was on Tuesday sentenced in a Miami Court after his conviction on July 3 on three counts of sex trafficking – both in the U.S. and Australia; five counts of transporting multiple individuals for prostitution, one count of importation of an alien for prostitution, one count of using a passport secured by false statement, one count of aggravated identity theft and nine counts of money laundering.
Baston was also found guilty of illegally reentering the United States after being previously removed.
According to court documents, Baston victimized seven women in the Middle East, Australia and the United States. Six victims bravely testified at trial that they had been trafficked for sex beginning in 2011 in various cities including Miami. Baston had been ordered removed from the United States in the late 1990s but stole the identity of an American citizen, which he used to obtain a Florida ID card and U.S. passport in that person’s name.
Baston used this false identity for international travel as he continued to recruit and victimize women.
The 27 year jail time will be followed by a lifetime term of supervised release for his role in a sex trafficking operation.
