Queens couple sentenced for pimping women and teen

Photo by rawpixel.com from Pexels.

Photo by rawpixel.com from Pexels.

By Jonathan Sperling

Both members of a Southeast Queens couple who pimped out multiple young women — including one as young as 15 — were sentenced to prison on Monday after they were convicted of various sex trafficking and prostitution-related charges.

Terrance “Staxx” Jackman of Springfield Gardens and his girlfriend Zulay “Mocca” Guerrero of Saint Albans, forced a 15-year-old and a 23-year-old to trade sex for cash multiple times between 2013 and 2017. Jackman also attempted to pimp a 20-year-old woman in 2017, but she managed to escape.

“The two defendants in this case admitted to trafficking young women and forcing them into trading sex for cash. The victims — who feared for their safety — had to have sex with strangers on multiple occasions and were required to turn over all the money they made,” said Chief Assistant District Attorney John Ryan in a statement.

“The male defendant threatened the victims and one was actually stabbed in the knee and without any medical attention forced to still prostitute herself that night. No one can look here and declare that prostitution is a victimless crime. These women were victimized and these defendants will answer for their actions,” Ryan continued.

The two female victims were coerced into sex work beginning around Feb. 1, 2013 and March 1, 2017, prosecutors said. Jackman forced them to turn over all the money they made to him.

In one instance in 2016, Jackman was sitting in a car with the then-21-year-old victim and stabbed her in the knee with a knife, leaving a scar. Despite her wound, prosecutors say the woman was forced by Jackman to engage in prostitution that same night.

In a separate case in 2017, Jackman met a 20-year-old woman at a nightclub and offered her a ride home. During the drive, however, Jackman took her to a Queens house and told her that she would be working as a prostitute. Jackson and Guerrero both took pictures of the woman and

posted them on Backpage.com, advertising her as a prostitute.

On June 30, 2017, the victim was driven to a location and forced to engage in a sex act with a stranger for money. While there, however, she told the man that she had been kidnapped and he let her escape.

Justice Peter Vallone Jr. sentenced Jackman to four to 12 years in prison and Guerrero was sentenced to one and one-third to four years in prison.