Closing arguments heard in sex trafficking trial

MARTINEZ » In what has been described as the most shocking human trafficking case in Contra Costa County’s history, defense attorneys for an alleged Bay Point pimp did not hedge in referring to alleged victims of human trafficking as needing authority figures and the bloody shaving of a victim’s head by knife as a “haircut.”

Wednesday marked the closing arguments in the four-month trial of Deandre Lewis, an alleged pimp and human trafficker from Bay Point. Lewis facesmultiple life sentences for 40 charges, ranging from kidnapping, rape and pimping to torture, aggravatedmayhem and murder by means of a coerced suicide.

Prosecutors have compared Lewis’ systemof controlling women as cultlike, with promises of financial independence, schooling and a brighter future.

“The defendant promises this lifestyle, this family — a belief in something that will get themsecurity. Then reality hits in and controlling a human is not that easy,” said Chad Mahalich, a Contra Costa Deputy District Attorney.

The clearest evidence against Lewis is a recorded jail call from 2014 in which he instructs Rachel Smith, his “bottom girl” and codefendant, to torture and shave the head of a victim he suspected of stealing money, and to send photos.

These photos, whichwere shown in court, showed the knife used to cut the victim’s hair and body and the amount of blood she was forced to clean up afterwards.

William Welch, a San Francisco-based attorney who is defending Lewis, referred to this as a “haircut,” and the cuts in her skin as “superficial, it was not subcutaneous and didn’t go down to the fat layer.”

“She was a mess. She knew the punishment was coming. She needed an authoritative figure. Some people do,” Welch said in his closing arguments. “She was one of those persons you can look at and say, ‘She had a choice. She wanted to stay.’ ”

Other witnesses, known as Jane Does 1 through 7, were described by Welch as willing participants in an industry that has “been around forever.” Men who pay for sex with women were referred to as “hobbyists” who were seeking gratification or companionship, and everythingwas between consenting adults.

“This case has introduced you to a substratum of society in the Bay Area.… Power, money and all things in our intricate human experience. It is what it is. It’s out there,” Welch said.

Welch trotted out testimony from the victim, who was tortured for multiple hours after the phone call from jail. According to testimony, the victim had been asked if she was free to leave at any point.

“Is it free to leave? Yes and no,” she responded. “I could leave, but I just couldn’t. I wanted to stay, but I knew it wasn’t good for me.”

In a subsequent interview, Welch said he had wanted to open up a discussion on the nature of consent and free will in response to charges of human trafficking, which he described as a “severe deprivation of human liberty.”

“These women were essentially autonomous with respect to what they did,” Welch claimed, saying that Lewis “was essentially a personal assistant who was taking a percentage.”

Lewis’ operation was said to be good for the girls, Welch said. They were told to set up bank accounts, get a job, attend school. They were strictly warned away fromtaking drugs, because that would have the girls “serve a different master,” Welch said.

The defense’s strongest argument was a coroner’s report that classified the death of one of the women as a suicide, Welch said. The prosecution put forth arguments that the woman was coerced toward suicide or that Lewis had “set her death inmotion by creating an operation in which death is not uncommon.”

“When you are a kingpin, you bear more responsibility,” Mahalich said.

In Mahalich’s rebuttal, he accused Lewis of manipulating the jury with a mix of charm and lies, just as he had done to the seven women for over a decade.

The prosecution had uncovered essays written by Lewis when he was a student at Diablo Valley College. One assignment was to write an essay describing 125 things he was thankful for.

Lewis wrote he was thankful for his dog, which was loyal; drugs, because they provided him employment; and headphones, which helped him block out the rest of the world.

At the end Lewis wrote that he didn’t believe half of this, but that his view on life was simple: money, power and respect.

“I live a hard life, some may say I’m a hard person, but mostly, I don’t give a (expletive),” his essay read before asking the teacher for a passing grade.

The jury was scheduled to deliberate on the 40 counts against Lewis on Thursday.