PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — A Vancouver man was sentenced to federal prison Tuesday for his involvement in the sex trafficking of multiple children.
Twenty-four-year-old Keonte Desmond Scott was sentenced to eight years in prison, along with five years of supervised release.
Trial testimony, as well as court documents, say that after Scott was released from prison in 2016, he met Johnl Jackson, who began coaching him in commercial sex trafficking. Later that year, Scott met and began a relationship with Diana Petrovic, who helped him recruit and traffic minor females.
In 2019, several minors reported to law enforcement that they had been trafficked by Scott and Petrovic. Investigators discovered that two teen girls had run away from their homes in Lane County and were introduced to Scott and Petrovic at a mall in Vancouver. After giving the girls drugs and alcohol, Scott and Petrovic told the girls that they would be taking them to a party. They instead sold them for sex at a location in Portland.
The two teen girls were able to separate from Scott and Petrovic later in the evening and were driven back home by one of the girl’s mothers the following day.
A federal grand jury in Portland returned a six-count indictment charging Scott, Petrovic, and a third accomplice, Evan Blake Barajas, with sex trafficking of children and transporting minors with intent to engage in sexual activity on May 8, 2019. A fourth accomplice, Jamil Timpke-Rhoades, was added to the indictment on Dec. 4, 2019.
Scott pleaded guilty to two counts of sex trafficking on Dec. 9, 2021, while Barajas and Timpke-Rhoades are in custody pending a seven-day jury trial scheduled to begin on July 19.
In a separate criminal case, a Portland grand jury returned a three-count indictment charging Jackson and Petrovic with sex trafficking of a child by force, fraud, and coercion; sex trafficking of a child; and transportation of a minor with intent to engage in sexual activity on Oct. 9, 2019.
Additionally, Petrovic plead guilty to the distribution of controlled substances to persons under 21 on July 22, 2020. She will be sentenced on April 3, 2023. Jackson was convicted of one count of conspiracy to engage in sex trafficking; three counts of sex trafficking of a child; two counts of sex trafficking by force, fraud and coercion; and three counts of transportation of a minor with intent to engage in sexual activity on March 11. He will be sentenced on July 25.
If you or someone you know is in danger, please call 911. If you are a human trafficking victim or have information about a potential human trafficking situation, please call the National Human Trafficking Resource Center at 1-888-373-7888 or by texting 233733. Calls and texts are answered 24 hours a day, seven days a week.