Judge sentences man to eight years in prison for trafficking girl

A 37-year-old man was sentenced on Friday to 8 years in San Quentin State Prison in a human trafficking case involving a 14-year-old girl.

Joshua Johnson, who has a prior conviction for felony first-degree robbery, was charged with five felony counts after police arrested him in an undercover prostitution sting operation along the International Boulevard corridor on March 7, 2019.

The charges were human trafficking of a minor, soliciting a child under age 16 to prostitute, pandering for payment, and two counts of unlawful sexual intercourse.

But on Dec. 18 the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office agreed to a deal in which Johnson only pleaded no contest to the pandering charge and the other counts were dismissed.

The deal called for Johnson to get an eight-year prison term and Alameda County Superior Court Judge Andrew Steckler formally sentenced him at a hearing on Friday.

Police found the 14-year-old girl when they staged the undercover sting operation on March 7, 2019, to rescue victims of human trafficking, Oakland police Officer Kathryn Reymundo wrote in a probable cause statement.

The girl told investigators that she already was working as a prostitute in Oakland when she met Johnson, who she knew as “Jay,” Reymundo said.

The girl said Johnson would drive her from their motel room to the International Boulevard area to prostitute, according to Reymundo.

She said all the money she earned would go to Johnson and he would “hold it for her” in his bank account and if she wanted money she would need to ask him for it, Reymundo wrote.

After Johnson was arrested he admitted knowing the girl was a prostitute and said he was “making sure she was taken care of” via providing food, beauty supplies and a motel room, Reymundo said.

Johnson and the girl both had keys to a room that was registered under his name at the Nights Inn Motel at 874 West MacArthur Blvd. in West Oakland, according to Reymundo.

Steckler ordered Johnson to register as a sex offender, submit to AIDS testing and stay away from the girl for 10 years.