Teen shared harrowing story in SLO County trafficking case. Now, her pimp is going to prison
A self-described pimp from Sacramento was sentenced to 15 years to life in state prison Friday after being convicted by a San Luis Obispo jury of trafficking a minor for sex.
After only a few hours of deliberations on March 15, the jury of seven women and five men found Lucion Lee Edward Banks guilty of one felony count of human trafficking, which the complaint says consists of causing, inducing or persuading a minor to engage in a commercial sex act.
He faced a maximum sentence of 15 years to life, according to the District Attorney’s Office.
On Friday, Banks was sentenced by Superior Court Judge Barry LaBarbera, who presided over the three-week trial, after LaBarbera had denied Banks’ motion for a new trial.
Friday’s sentencing hearing was attended by Banks’ now-17-year-old victim, who gave gripping testimony during the trial about how she was “given away to the streets” on Oakland’s International Boulevard, sections of which are notorious hubs for prostitution, after being abandoned by her mother.
During the hearing on Friday, the young woman — whom The Tribune is not identifying — delivered a victim impact statement recounting how Banks physically and emotionally abused her.
“I’m glad to say I feel no more fear,” she said.
As she confidently delivered her statement at the podium, Banks, seated with his attorney, looked back at her attentively as he listened.
“I never want to see him again,” she said. “You are a woman beater and an abuser. You make me sick.
Banks, 37, will remain in custody in San Luis Obispo County Jail pending transfer to California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation officials. It is still to be determined at which state prison he will serve his time.
Banks has been held in San Luis Obispo County Jail custody on more than $1 million bail since his arrest in October 2018.
The young woman, who was placed under a guardianship by San Luis Obispo County Child Welfare Services officials, is now doing well in school and is planning to be a beautician, she said Friday.
Deputy district attorney Christopher White, who prosecuted the case, said following her statement that several agencies including the county Department of Social Services were key to the successful outcome in the case.
“But she’s done all the work necessary to dig herself out of the hole she was in,” White told LaBarbera. “I’m honored to have participated in this case and to know her.”
At the conclusion of the hearing, LaBarbera told Banks that he knows him to be an intelligent man who “can benefit from services in prison.”
“I think you can do some good before you get out,” he said.
To the young woman, LaBarbera said that he’s glad to hear of her recent successes and wished her well in her future endeavors.
“Your future is in your hands, and you’re an example of courage,” LaBarbera told her. “Thank you.”
SLOPD officer suspected trafficking during stop
A San Luis Obispo police officer stopped Banks’ vehicle for alleged vehicle code violations as Banks drove in the 3000 block of Broad Street at about 1:40 a.m. on Oct. 5, 2018, according to testimony.
Inside, Officer Quentin Rouse found Banks and the 14-year-old girl.
Rouse testified during the trial that he suspected a possible trafficking situation when the pair told him they weren’t related and had no clear story of why they were in the city. Banks was also driving with a suspended license and had a misdemeanor warrant out for his arrest.
A search of the vehicle turned up skimpy female clothing, wigs and condoms, police said, and cell phone data obtained by investigators contained evidence shown to the jury at trial that he was trafficking the girl for paid sex.
Rouse testified that the girl, then 14, provided him with Banks’ cellphone password — “pimpin ass”— that allowed officers initial access to its contents.
After obtaining a search warrant, investigators allegedly found additional evidence on Banks’ own social media accounts, text messages and cell records that showed his movement from the Bay Area to Kern County, San Luis Obispo County and other locations in the weeks prior to his arrest.
The victim testified that her mother abandoned her when she was 10 years old, and she was taken under the wing of a prostitute friend of her mother’s in the downtown Oakland area with “pimps, prostitutes, crackheads and homeless people.”
She was controlled by her first pimp at 12 years old and ultimately ended up with Banks, with whom she traveled by car to clients in the Bay Area, the Central Valley and Los Angeles, often staying at cheap motels near gas stations and other places with heavy traffic.
“I pretty much worked wherever he took me,” Jane Doe said.
Evidence presented in testimony showed that Doe did not get “days off,” and that “a date” with the teen cost between $40 and $60.
During the trial, White told jurors that, from early September 2018 to his arrest that October, Banks exerted “a toxic mix of fear, love, violence and loyalty” over the teen, demanding that she hand over all of her earnings and stay in constant contact with him while they were on the road.
“(The victim) has experienced the consequences of her choices,” White said. “She was paying a price, because every night she went out (to work), she lost a little of her soul.”
Banks’ attorney, Jeffry Radding, told jurors that “it’s undisputed that Mr. Banks is a pimp,” and argued that though Banks lived “the life” in Oakland and other cities in which he operated, there was a difference between working “the circuit” and the trafficking of a minor.
How to get help
If you or someone you know is being forced to engage in any activity and cannot leave, whether it is commercial sex, housework, farm work, construction, factory, retail or restaurant work, or any other activity, call the National Human Trafficking Hotline at 1-888-373-7888 or Text 233733 (BE FREE).
In San Luis Obispo County, you may contact Crime Stoppers at 805-549-STOP; text “SLOTIPS” plus your message to CRIMES (274637). You can also call the District Attorney Victim Witness Assistance Center at 805-781-5821 or toll-free at 866-781-5821.
This story was originally published May 21, 2021 at 2:55 PM.
