SoCal Sex Trafficker Who Had Victim's Teeth Pulled Sentenced To Life In Prison

GARDENA, CA — A Gardena man was sentenced Tuesday to life in prison after sex trafficking a victim, taking her money and having her teeth pulled by an unlicensed dentist, authorities said.

Michael Deon Fulcher, 54, was convicted in January by a Mississippi federal jury of sex trafficking, conspiracy to commit sex trafficking and interstate transportation for purposes of prostitution, according to authorities.

“This defendant traumatized the victim, robbed her of her dignity and deprived her of the choice and control essential to her personal autonomy by forcing her to engage in prostitution for his own profit,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke, of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, said in a news release.

Fulcher lured the victim, who was injured, into his car in Las Vegas, falsely promising to help her but instead taking her to his home and sexually assaulting her, according to the department. He used sexual assault, violent threats, isolation, control, psychological manipulation and emotional abuse to compel her to engage in commercial sex between April and June 2020, authorities said.

Fulcher required the victim to follow strict rules, threatened her with physical harm, confiscated her money and Social Security debit card, and had an unlicensed dentist pull her teeth, according to the department. He also sent the victim and Hamilton across the country to engage in commercial sex, stopping in Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi, where the victim ran away, authorities said.

While she was on the road, Fulcher required the victim to send him all her earnings, controlled her phone access, isolated her from anyone she knew and refused to let her receive needed medical treatment, according to the department.

“The strength and resiliency of the victim in this case to escape the defendant and then report what happened will ensure that he never harms anyone else again,” U.S. Attorney Todd Gee, of the Southern District of Mississippi, said in the news release.

Fulcher’s codefendant, Jonzie Hamilton, pleaded guilty to interstate transportation for purposes of prostitution and was sentenced April 9 to 29 months in prison followed by five years of supervised release, authorities said.

Anyone with information about human trafficking is asked to report it to the National Human Trafficking Hotline toll-free at 1-888-373-7888, according to the department. The hotline is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.