A former hotel clerk who knowingly provided rooms for a trafficked teenager to be sold for sex pleaded guilty to human trafficking charges Thursday and was sentenced to 15 years in prison, officials said.
Dionte Johnson, 30, of Atlanta, pleaded guilty to two counts of trafficking a person for sexual servitude, Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr said. Johnson’s sentence includes another 10 years of supervised release after his prison stint. He will also be required to register as a sex offender.
The case involved a 16-year-old girl who was discovered during a traffic stop in Cherokee County in December 2021, Carr said. The teenager, who was in the car with a man identified as Mark Thomas, told officers he had sold her for sex earlier that year, beginning when she was 15 years old.
The girl was sold for sex in both Cherokee and Fulton counties, including at multiple hotels along Fulton Industrial Boulevard, Carr said. During the course of the investigation, an analyst in the prosecutor’s office discovered that Thomas was assisted by a hotel employee in his trafficking of the girl.
Johnson worked as a clerk at the Economy Hotel at the time, and he helped Thomas by securing rooms for the girl and Thomas’ customers. In exchange, Johnson received kickback payments.
Johnson also solicited the girl for sex, Carr said.
He is the sixth man to be convicted in the case, Carr said. Each defendant received lengthy prison sentences, and Thomas was sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to counts of battery, aggravated assault, child molestation and aggravated child molestation in addition to multiple trafficking charges.
