Nearly two years after law enforcement arrested four men and a mother for trafficking a 14-year-old girl in Pensacola, the final defendant in the group of cases accepted a plea deal July 23.
Edwin Martinez-Cruz pleaded no contest to human trafficking a child under 18 years old for his role in trafficking the teen for sex in 2023, court records indicate. Along with the plea, the state dropped two sexual battery charges, a child abuse charge and one count of unlawful use of a two-way communication device.
Martinez-Cruz was the last in a group of five defendants the Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigated after allegations of human trafficking and sexual abuse of a minor, all of whom have been convicted. One of the defendant’s was the teen’s own mother, Melissa Martinez-Ordonez.
“This case was difficult to investigate and prosecute due to the delay in disclosure,” Assistant State Attorney Carrie Gilmer told the News Journal. “As a result of the lack of information available at the beginning of the investigation, that led to evidence being unavailable or destroyed. However, having these individuals identified, prosecuted, convicted, and now removed from our community is a success.”
Who were involved and what were their sentences?
According to Gilmer, the victim in the case was “uncooperative and unable to provide much identifying information” to law enforcement when the investigation began.
“Despite the challenges presented in the case, the State was able to prosecute and get convictions on all five defendants due to the professional and thorough work of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and their partner agencies,” Gilmer said.
Martinez-Ordonez, the victim’s mother, pleaded to no contest to transferring custody of a minor and using a two-way device for a felony, and in exchange for the no contest plea the Office of the State Attorney dropped her human trafficking charge, according to court records.
She was sentenced to 13 years in state prison followed by 24 months of supervised release.
Here are the male defendant’s charges and their sentences:
According to investigative records, everyone involved in the case are in the U.S. illegally. Gilmer told the News Journal that all the defendants in the U.S. illegally have ICE holds and are anticipated to be deported at the conclusion of their sentences.
What happened between Jan. 29 and Jan. 31, 2023, in Pensacola?
The teen told a special agent with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, who is also a Homeland Securities Investigations agent with the Department of Homeland Security, that she was messaging Flores-Ardon to pick her up from her home on Jan. 29. She said she knew Flores-Ardon through her ex-boyfriend.
After telling her mother she was leaving to get food, she and Flores-Ardon drove to Elberta, Alabama, to purchase alcohol, which the girl began drinking, according to court documents. Once they made it to a Pensacola apartment, the girl told law enforcement she could not remember anything except waking up without any clothing.
The 14-year-old told law enforcement she “feels it was probable that she was sexually assaulted at the apartment with her clothing on the floor.”
After putting her clothes back on, she found Flores-Ardon and they drove to another apartment where Martinez-Cruz and Ardon-Martinez were located. There were also two people she only identified as “Selvin” and an “Older Guy.”
The girl told Flores-Ardon she asked to go home, but he left and said he would eventually return. The girl spent the night at the apartment drinking alcohol and said she woke up the next morning without any clothing.
On Jan. 30, she went with Martinez-Cruz to another home on West Cervantes Street where everyone was using illegal narcotics and drinking alcohol, according to a report. Later that night, Martinez-Cruz allegedly forced the girl into a bedroom.
The report says Martinez-Cruz and Ardon-Martinez would take turns holding her down and raping her while “Selvin” watched and “older guy” recorded the alleged incident. The girl told law enforcement the bedroom door could be locked from the outside with a “rope and nail locking system.”
The following morning on Jan. 31, she was taken back to Martinez-Cruz’s home where she was told her mother would come to get her.
In an interview with police officers, Martinez-Ordonez reportedly disclosed the abuse her daughter allegedly suffered in Pensacola after lying about the daughter’s whereabouts to law enforcement. After her disclosure, investigators found she contacted the men who raped her daughter and threatened to turn them in if she did not receive payment.
Further investigation found the girl’s mother had been trafficking her to Pensacola for a year and receiving payments for people to have sex with the 14-year-old.
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Final man charged with trafficking 14-year-old girl in Pensacola takes plea
Reporting by Benjamin Johnson, Pensacola News Journal / Pensacola News Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
