California Man Pleads Guilty to Sex Trafficking of Six Victims Faces 18 Years in Prison

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – A Sacramento, Calif., man pleaded guilty in federal court today to the sex trafficking of six victims.

Ronald Ean Taylor, 45, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Gary A. Fenner to six counts of the sex trafficking of an adult.

By pleading guilty today, Taylor admitted that he used force, fraud or coercion to cause six victims to engage in prostitution, from which he benefitted financially. Taylor trafficked six separate victims at various times between Nov. 1, 2014, and May 31, 2017.

The investigation began in June 2016, when one of Taylor’s victims was contacted by Kansas City, Mo., police officers. She told officers that Taylor was a pimp who lived in California and sold drugs and prostitutes in the Kansas City area. She said Taylor verbally threatened to harm her, was mean, had anger issues, and was manipulative. He provided her with drugs and used her to meet other women with drug addictions. She told officers that one of Taylor’s victims, identified in court documents as “Victim 6,” used to “work” for Taylor and died in California from a drug overdose while she was with him.

The women had ads posted on Backpage and Taylor used hotels near Blue Ridge Cutoff near the sports stadiums to conduct his business. He would get the women to go to California and show them an extravagant lifestyle. He started them off dancing in strip clubs, then suggested they work as prostitutes. When the women agreed to prostitute, Taylor would fly them back to Kansas City to work. Taylor kept the money earned by the women from prostitution.

A second victim told investigators that Taylor was violent and on one occasion hit her over the head with liquor bottle. The second victim stated she felt like she would be hurt if she did not have sex with him. She said Taylor carried a firearm.

A third victim told federal agents that Taylor was physically violent towards her and would take all of the proceeds from the acts of prostitution. She said Taylor choked her to unconsciousness and forcibly raped her.

A fourth victim’s mother contacted law enforcement to report that her daughter was in Hollywood, Calif., with Taylor and was being held against her will. Taylor had brought the fourth victim to California on two occasions so that she could purportedly model. He provided her with illegal narcotics and kept her in a constant state of intoxication to a point where she became dependent. She told investigators that Taylor kept her from contacting her mother and became hostile; he used her drug dependency to motivate her to do things she would not normally do.

A fifth victim told investigators that she and a sixth victim (now deceased due to a drug overdose) were addicted to heroin. Taylor used heroin and a trip to California to entice them to work as prostitutes. He paid for both of their airfares to California and put them up in a motel somewhere in Los Angeles. Taylor continued to supply them with drugs and then flew them both back to Kansas City to work as prostitutes. On one occasion, she said, Taylor slapped her in the face and forcibly raped her. She and another victim told investigators that Taylor also was physically abusive to the sixth victim. A witness stated she saw Taylor throw her against the wall and choke her.

Under the terms of today’s plea agreement, Taylor will be sentenced to 18 years in federal prison without parole and must pay restitution to his victims. A sentencing hearing will be scheduled after the completion of a presentence investigation by the United States Probation Office.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Teresa A. Moore. It was investigated by the FBI, the Kansas City, Mo., Police Department, the Los Angeles Police Department and the Sacramento, Calif., Police Department in conjunction with the Human Trafficking Rescue Project.