Dallas Colby Cardenas, 20, has been convicted of sex trafficking of a child, pimping and pimping of a child. At the time of Cardenas' indictment by the Colorado grand jury, he was 19.
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.
Between May 2010 and June 2010, Cardenas pimped two females, aged 17 and 18, in Denver and Lakewood. Using sexually suggestive Craigslist ads, Cardenas coerced them to have sex with clients for $175 per hour or $150 per half-hour in motels or Cardenas' own apartment. Jenkins helped drive the females to motels when someone would answer the ad for an "out-call" act of prostitution.
In the case of the 17-year-old, Cardenas forced her to have sex with him in order to groom her for prostitution.
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.
Under Colorado law, a 17-year-old is a child. 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. Craigslist has no culpability in this case, Saccone said.
Cardenas is scheduled to be sentenced on August 16.