Tacoma man gets 10 years for sex trafficking
Mar 27, 2012, 2:14 PM | Updated: 2:18 pm
A Tacoma man has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for
sex trafficking and being a felon in possession of a
firearm, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Tuesday.
Jonelle LaJohn Braun, 24, was arrested in March 2011
outside of a motel in Federal Way, Wash.
According to federal prosecutors, Braun forced a 16-year-
old girl into prostitution in November 2010, using
BackPage.com to list her for sex.
“Mr. Braun required the 16-year-old to give her all the
money she made,” said Assistant United States Attorney Ye-
Ting Woo, who heads the office’s task force on human
trafficking. “He also used physical violence to control
her, including slapping her and hitting her, and that was
to force her to keep working for him.”
The case was a joint investigation between the FBI’s
Innocence Lost Task Force, Lakewood Police Department,
Tacoma Police Department, Washington State Department of
Corrections and the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Forearms
and Explosives.
Woo said Braun has previous convictions for assault,
burglary, cocaine delivery, possession of stolen property
and unlawful possession of a firearm.
