Man sentenced in human trafficking case
Victim was 17-year-old Porterville girl
Tulare County Superior Court Judge Kathryn Montejano Thursday sentenced Bryan Walker, 21, of Hanford, to 20 years in state prison for sex trafficking of a Porterville teenage girl.
Tulare County Superior Court Judge Kathryn Montejano Thursday sentenced Bryan Walker, 21, of Hanford, to 20 years in state prison for sex trafficking of a Porterville teenage girl.
Walker previously pleaded no contest on June 26 to five felony counts of human trafficking of a minor and one count of felony pimping of a minor. He also admitted a special allegation that the trafficking was done for the benefit of a criminal street gang.
Walker was one of seven defendants who were charged with offenses related to a human trafficking ring that spanned across Tulare and Kings counties. Six of the defendants were charged in Tulare County and one was prosecuted by Kings County.
With Walker’s sentencing, three of the defendants have now completed the court process and been sentenced. Andre Stitt was previously sentenced to two years and eight months in state prison and Jelinajiane Almario was sentenced in Kings County in July to 13 years in state prison.
On May 12, 2016, Walker was arrested by Porterville Police Department for trafficking a 17-year-old minor in Porterville. He had posted advertisements with her photographs on the internet for the purpose of prostituting the minor.
The juvenile, age 17, agreed to exchange sex for money with undercover detectives at an unnamed hotel in Porterville, police said.
According to a Porterville Police Department press release, the department’s Special Investigations and Narcotics units, assisted by Visalia and Hanford police and the FBI, conducted the joint investigation into possible prostitution.
Walker was arrested for contributing to the delinquency of a minor, and possession of over an ounce of marijuana. He was also wanted on felony warrants for robbery and assault with a deadly weapon in Kings County.
Following Walker’s arrest, investigators from the FBI, the Tulare County District Attorney’s Bureau of Investigations, and the Hanford Police Department conducted numerous interviews and wrote over a dozen search warrants and discovered that Walker was working in conjunction with several other members and associates of a gang out of the City of Hanford. The human trafficking ring transported girls from Hanford to Visalia and trafficked them across motels in Tulare County from April 2016 through May 2016.
As a result of the investigation the seven defendants were charged and a total of eight minor victims and one adult victim were identified.
In addition to his sentence, Walker must register as a sex offender for life.
The case was prosecuted by Deputy District Attorney Stacy Plantier of the Crimes against Children Division and investigated by Porterville Police Detective Anthony White, Hanford Police Detective Jason Gustin, Kings County Gang Taskforce Officer Nate Estrada, Federal Bureau of Investigation Agent Josh Ratzlaff, and Tulare County District Attorney Investigator Martha Rodriguez.