A metro Atlanta duo is headed to prison after pleading guilty to trafficking a Cobb County minor for sex, authorities said.
Savannah Grissum, 22, of Douglasville, and Alonzo Dean Westmoreland, 31, of Kennesaw, will spend a combined 15½ years in prison for taking the underage runaway to Tennessee and trafficking them out of a Chattanooga motel room, federal prosecutors said.
The child was reported missing to Cobb County police in June 2018, authorities said. After learning the juvenile was in Chattanooga, members of the FBI and the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office raided the motel and found the minor, who had been prostituted for four days.
“Grissum and Westmoreland used the proceeds from that illegal activity to pay for their hotel room and other expenses,” prosecutors from the Eastern District of Tennessee said in a news release.
Both pleaded guilty last fall to transporting an underage victim for the purpose of engaging in prostitution, officials said. Grissum was sentenced to more than six years behind bars, while Westmoreland received a nine-year prison sentence. Following their release from prison, both must spend six years on supervised release. They will also be required to register as sex offenders in any state where they live, work or attend school.
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