A 23-year-old Los Angeles County man was behind bars Friday on federal charges of pimping a 16-year-old runaway from Orange County to work as a prostitute in Southern California, Nevada and Arizona.
Christian Alexander Augustus, aka “Sir Ceeco,” was arrested in Stockton on Tuesday. He made his initial appearance the following day in federal court in Sacramento, where he remains in federal custody pending his transfer to Orange County to face the charges against him, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
According to an affidavit filed Monday with the criminal complaint, the victim met the defendant in Los Angeles last December and took her to Los Angeles, Santa Ana, Las Vegas and Phoenix, where he forced her to work on the streets and advertised her services on the internet. The teen allegedly gave him all the money she made.
Augustus is accused of beating the girl when she did not earn as much money as he wanted and for trying to leave. After she made an unsuccessful escape attempt on July 1, he allegedly beat her so severely that she suffered two black eyes, a bruised rib and facial swelling, according to court documents.
The girl fled Augustus on July 8 and said he later contacted her and threatened to kill her and her family, according to the affidavit.
If convicted, Augustus would face a statutory maximum sentence of life in federal prison and a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in federal prison.
The case was investigated by the Orange County Human Trafficking Task Force.
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