Dallas Colby Cardenas Receives An Eight Year Sentence For Trafficking A Child

A Jefferson County District judge this morning sentenced Dallas Colby Cardenas, 20, to eight years in prison for trafficking a child.

According to Colorado Attorney General John Suthers's office, Cardenas's conviction was the first such conviction under the state's 2006 human trafficking law enacted by the General Assembly.

Under Colorado's human trafficking and slavery statute, trafficking in children and adults involves receiving money in exchange for selling, bartering or leasing a child or adult. Pimping is the act of being financially supported through the money received by the person prostituting themselves.

Cardenas was convicted in June of trafficking of a child, pimping, pimping of a child, and two other related charges for pimping two females. Between May and June of last year, Cardenas trafficked a 17-year-old and pimped an 18-year-old, coercing them both to participate in prostitution in Denver and Lakewood.

In the case of the 17-year-old, Cardenas forced her to have sex with him in order to groom her for prostitution.

Mike Saccone, spokesman for the Colorado Attorney General's Office and Department of Law told HuffPost that Cardenas could presumably face between 8 and 24 years in prison for the trafficking of a child and fines ranging between $5,000 and $1 million.

Cardenas' codefendant, Ryan Keith Jenkins, 24, pled guilty to class three misdemeanor pandering. Jenkins was originally indicted with Cardenas for conspiracy to commit pimping and possession of Ecstasy.

Craigslist, where the sexually suggestive ads by Cardenas were promoting the prostitution, had no culpability in the case, Saccone said.