PLANO, Texas — A 29-year-old Mesquite man who was accused of assaulting a teen he was trafficking for sex was sentenced to 59 years in prison, officials announced Tuesday.
Ricky Stevenson was convicted on a charge of aggravated kidnapping in the case, according to a news release from the Collin County District Attorney's Office.
The release said the investigation began on Jan. 23, 2021, when Stevenson took the teen to a nail salon in Plano.
As they left the salon, surveillance footage showed Stevenson "punching the female so hard that she fell to the ground," the release said. He then dragged the teen by her hair to a car.
The teen stumbled out of the car and tried to get away, as Stevenson grabbed her by the hair and tried to throw her back into the car, officials said.
The teen then got away and ran to witnesses, who saw the incident and were about to intervene.
Plano police detective Aaron Benzick learned that the teen had been prostituted by Stevenson since she was 16, officials said. She was 17 when the assault happened outside of the nail salon.
At the trial, Benzick testified that two other women had been prostituted by Stevenson, and that he also assaulted one of them, the release said.
Stevenson had previous convictions on charges of assault-family violence by impeding breathing and assault-family violence with a previous conviction.
Jurors were also presented with evidence of Stevenson's social media posts in which he was "boasting about being a pimp and controlling women," officials said.
The jury decided on the 59-year sentence.
Collin County District Attorney Greg Willis called the sentence "both strong and just."
“It’s a parent’s worst nightmare for their own child to be forcibly prostituted by a human trafficker," Willis said. "We’ve now secured justice by forcing that trafficker to pay the consequences."
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