Local Briefs 24 YEARS IN PRISON FOR RECRUITING GIRLS FOR SEX

A Brighton man was sentenced to 24 years in prison for posing as a woman on Facebook to recruit teenagers for sex.

Jorge Reyes, 27, also will serve 10 years of sex offender intensive probation and must register as a sex offender once he is released from prison, according to a news release from the 17th Judicial District attorney’s office. Reyes had pleaded guilty to one count of human trafficking of minors involving three victims and one count of soliciting child prostitutes involving nine victims.

Reyes had used a female acquaintance’s Facebook page to contact more than 400 females, ages 15 to 21, about cleaning houses for money, the district attorney said.

If they responded, Reyes would ask if they would clean the house wearing little or no clothing and would promise to pay them more if they were willing to engage in sex acts.

Most of the solicitation was limited to online contacts, but Reyes met three victims, ages 16 and 17, in early 2017 and had sex with them in his car with promises to pay them several hundred dollars.

He never paid, the DA’s office said.

Man will stand trial for pregnant woman’s disappearance.

PUEBLO» A judge has ruled that there is enough evidence to try a Colorado man in the disappearance of a pregnant 21-year-old woman.

District Judge Thomas Flesher handed down his ruling Thursday in the case of 25-year-old Donthe Lucas, who was arrested on suspicion of first-degree murder stemming from the disappearance of Kelsie Schelling.

The Pueblo Chieftain reports that during the course of the preliminary hearing, testimony was presented about how Lucas had changed his story about what happened after Schelling arrived in Pueblo from her home in Denver on Feb. 4, 2013. The two were dating at the time, and Schelling was visiting Lucas about her pregnancy.

Schelling is still missing.