ROCHESTER, N.Y. – U.S. Attorney James P. Kennedy, Jr. announced today that Marcus Brown, 25, of Rochester, NY, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Charles J. Siragusa to two counts of sex trafficking of minors. The charge carries a mandatory minimum penalty of 10 years in prison and a maximum of life.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Melissa Marangola and Meghan McGuire, who handled the case, stated that in 2015, the defendant ran a sex trafficking operation with co-defendant, Ray Davis. Brown and Davis preyed upon and exploited teenagers who were homeless and vulnerable, coercing them to engage in commercial sex acts. Davis and Brown worked together to take sexually explicit photos of the minor victims and post them on Backpage.com, an online classified advertisement website that was previously shut down by the Department of Justice.
Defendant Davis was convicted by a federal jury and sentenced to serve 25 years in prison. Brown is scheduled to be sentenced on January 20, 2021, at 10:00 a.m. before Judge Siragusa.
The plea is the result of an investigation by Homeland Security Investigations, under the direction of Special Agent-in-Charge Kevin Kelly, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Child Exploitation Task Force, under the direction of Special Agent-in-Charge Stephen Belongia.