Man Sentenced In 2016 Murder Of Trafficking Victim In Markham

MARKHAM, IL — A 37-year-old Chicago man was sentenced to 39 years in prison after pleading guilty to the 2016 murder of a 16-year-old girl who was a victim of sex trafficking, officials said.

Antonio Rosales told prosecutors he met the teenager, Desiree Robinson, at a home in the 16200 block of South Hamlin Avenue in December of 2016. There, officials said Rosales and Robinson argued after she refused to perform a sex act for free.

Robinson's body was later found in a parking garage in Markham.

Rosales was arrested shortly after on Dec. 27, 2016. The man was sentenced nearly three years after Joseph Hazley, the man convicted of trafficking and arranging Robinson's sexual meet-ups, was sentenced to 32 years in federal prison.

Robinson's family filed a lawsuit against Backpage.com in 2017, accusing the site of allowing traffickers to post sexual advertisements for children. The site was shut down after federal investigation in April of 2018.

"I am relieved that that individual who took [Desiree's] life will now pay for what he did to my beautiful daughter and to our family, although no amount of justice in the court system will begin to offset our loss, and her loss of what I know would have been a beautiful life," Robinson's mother, Yvonne Ambrose, said in a statement through her attorneys, Romanucci & Blandin.

Attorneys for the family said Ambrose will continue to advocate against websites that make it possible to advertise trafficking victims online.