A man with nine prior felony convictions was sentenced on Friday to 18 years to life in state prison for bringing a 15-year-old Stockton girl to Oakland to perform acts of prostitution along an infamous stretch of International Boulevard known as the "Track."
Lonnel Moore, 37, Oakland was convicted in September of human trafficking of a minor with force, pimping of a minor, inducing a minor to commit a lewd and lascivious act and committing a lewd act on a minor for incidents between June 25 and Aug. 7 in 2018.
Oakland police said the victim told officers who located her at Bancroft and 90th avenues in the early morning hours of Aug. 7, 2018, that Moore, who she said was her pimp, attempted to kill her at the nearby Parkland Motel by suffocating her with a pillow and violently striking her with a blunt object.
Police alleged that Moore used drugs and abusive language against the 15-year-old girl to subjugate her to the life of pimping and sex trafficking.
The victim met Moore in Stockton in late June 2018 and a few days later she began working as a prostitute under his control along the International Boulevard corridor in Oakland, according to a probable cause statement by Oakland police Officer Kathryn Raymundo.
All the money the girl made working as a prostitute went to Moore, Raymundo wrote.
The victim tried to escape from Moore on three occasions but in each case he found her and beat her, Raymundo said.
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But the girl finally was able to escape after the final time that he beat her, according to Raymundo.
In that incident he put a pillow over her face and smothered her but finally released the pressure, Raymundo wrote.
The girl called her mother after she escaped and her mother in turn called police, who then located and helped her, Raymundo said.
Alameda County prosecutors said investigators found text messages on Moore's phone directing the girl to perform sex acts for money as well as texts in which he used abusive language toward her.
Prosecutors said investigators also found hundreds of other messages on Moore's phone that he sent to several other women directing them to work as prostitutes as well as threats of violence when they didn't respond accordingly.
Moore, who was supported by about a dozen family members and friends at his sentencing hearing on Friday, has nine prior felony convictions dating back to 2003.
He has five convictions for possession of cocaine base for sale and two convictions each for evading an officer and being an ex-felon in possession of a firearm.
After Alameda County Superior Court Judge Andrew Steckler sentenced Moore he cleared his courtroom so that Moore could hug his son before he went off to prison.
