Pimp David Lee Walker was sentenced to 12 years in prison Thursday for human trafficking in a case where he ordered a prostitute beaten and then forced the wounded woman to sleep in a dog's travel cage.
The then- 21-year-old had escaped from Walker's stable of prostitutes and he and two confederates had tracked her down to Midtown in April of 2010, said Fulton County prosecutor Shondeana Morris.
When she tried to flee again, Walker warned her to stop, Morris said. "He said, ‘Running is only going to make it worse for you.' "
Walker took her back to his motel on Fulton Industrial Boulevard where he lived with his prostitutes and henchmen and ordered other streetwalkers to beat their recalcitrant co-worker.
Walker then locked her in the dog kennel overnight.
The crime probably would have passed unnoticed, but Fulton County police discovered the victim when searching all the motel rooms in an unrelated case, Morris said.
It was the latest sexual trafficking case brought by District Attorney Paul Howard, who promised to crack down on human trafficking and child prostitution nearly a decade ago. His has brought 43 cases since 2005, including one that went to trial in February that resulted in a life sentence for pimp Shun Pierre Pinkston, 43, for rape, child molestation and pimping in a case involving a 15-year-old girl.
Walker's lawyer, Maxwell Schardt, described his 30-year-old client as a hustler who began making money off the streets after dropping out of the 9th grade. He described Walker as sharing a communal criminal lifestyle with several prostitutes, who were more co-conspirators than victims.
“This case has always been to me about hustling and different people hustling and getting by,” Schardt said.“Walker was associated with these girls who were prostituting themselves and they are just getting by. They lived as a unit, they partied as a unit. He hustled, they hustled."
Schardtasked Superior Court Judge Alford Dempsey to follow the recommendation of Howard's office and give Walker 20 years with 12 to serve for human trafficking for sexual purposes and related charges. The judge obliged.
Keyanna Powell, 21, is the only defendant remaining in the case. The others have pleaded guilty. Amber Knight, 26, was sentenced to 10 years to serve 3; Whitney Luckett 27, to 10 years to serve one; David Davidson, 25, Anthony Davidson, 26, and Robertenette Gordon-Deaver, 23, to 10 years to serve one, according to Howard's office.
On Thursday, Walker also pleaded guilty to robbery and aggravated battery in case where he attacked a victim who had been photographing his prostitutes on Fulton Industrial Boulevard in an apparent attempt to document their activities. He was sentenced to 10 years to serve five to be served at the same time as the human trafficking sentence.
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