Sacramento man, 26, convicted in federal court of sex trafficking an underage girl
A Sacramento man was convicted this week in federal court of sex trafficking an underage girl in a Bay Area prostitution ring.
After a weeklong trial, a jury on Tuesday found Robert Pierre Duncan, 26, guilty of sex trafficking of a child, conspiracy to engage in sex trafficking and escape from federal custody, U.S. Attorney Phillip Talbert’s office said in a Wednesday news release.
“Duncan recruited a 17-year-old girl to engage in prostitution in Oakland and San Francisco” between September 2018 and October 2018, according to the the news release. He posted online prostitution ads and “harbored the victim at an Oakland motel.”
Sacramento County sheriff’s deputies recovered the victim in September 2018. But a few weeks later, federal prosecutors said, Duncan and a co-conspirator, identified as 25-year-old Eva Christian, “extracted the victim from a children’s group home in the middle of the night” and had her back in Oakland engaging in prostitution by the next day.
Duncan was arrested in Sacramento by FBI agents on May 31, 2019. He broke out of custody and fled through midtown, where he was apprehended again a few blocks away from his initial arrest, according to Wednesday’s news release.
Duncan, who remains in custody at the Sacramento County Main Jail downtown on a federal hold, is scheduled for sentencing June 6.
He faces a maximum of life in prison and a fine of up to $250,000, with a mandatory minimum of 10 years in prison for the child sex trafficking conviction.
Christian, the co-conspirator, pleaded guilty in April 2021 to misprision of a felony. She is scheduled to be sentenced April 4, federal court records show.
This story was originally published March 9, 2022 at 9:49 AM.
