Gainesville duo found guilty of trafficking teen girl for sex

Eric Joshua Robertson and Laronda Jamese Moore

Eric Joshua Robertson and Laronda Jamese Moore

A Gainesville man and woman were convicted this week of forcing a teenage girl to have sex for money.

Eric Joshua Robertson and Laronda Jamese Moore were found guilty Wednesday of trafficking a minor and second-degree cruelty to children by a Hall County jury.

According to prosecutors, Moore recruited the victim and the pair used the girl for sexual servitude between July 2017 and January 2018. She was between 16 and 17 years old at the time.

Robertson hit the teen’s face, leaving her with a swollen eye inside Moore’s Miller Drive home, the Hall County Sheriff’s Office said at the time of his arrest.

Because there was no photographic evidence, jurors said they could not convict Robertson on a charge of battery related to family violence.

Authorities did not disclose the relationship between Robertson and the teen girl.

A Hall County Judge sentenced Moore to 25 years, with the first 20 to be served in prison and the rest on probation, court records show. Robertson was sentenced to 40 years, with the first 25 to be spent behind bars.

As conditions of their probation, Judge Bonnie Oliver ordered that Moore and Robertson not have any contact with each other.