Pimp gets 9 years for sending Minnesota girls to Las Vegas

A man who recruited Minnesota teenagers to work as Las Vegas prostitutes was sentenced Wednesday in federal court to nine years in prison. But it could have been worse.

U.S. District Judge Richard Kyle concluded that Darryl Taylor, 34, deserved a stiffer sentence because he had played a leadership role in a small group of pimps, and because he tried to convince his ex-wife in a phone call not to cooperate with investigators.

But he also decided that Taylor deserved a bit of a break.

Kyle first determined that the federal sentencing guidelines suggest a sentence of 121 to 151 months in prison. Then he cut that to 108 months, he said, because the government's evidence for enhancing the sentence was under-whelming.

"This is pretty skinny stuff, quite frankly, what you've got here," Kyle told Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Lewis after two hours of testimony and arguments.

Co-defendants Tivon Bandy and Kenwaniee Tate testified against Taylor, saying he had determined when to go to Las Vegas and where to stay. But they also said they said they were free to come and go, and they made their own decisions about recruiting some girls.

An ex-girlfriend of Taylor's, Camille Tulloch, said he paid the group's hotel bills and some expenses, including air fares from the Twin Cities to Las Vegas. She said she accompanied one minor girl on a trip, and they were picked up at the Las Vegas airport by Taylor's ex-wife.

Richard Malacko, Taylor's attorney, noted that Bandy and Tate have worse criminal backgrounds than Taylor, but the government negotiated plea bargains with them on conspiracy charges, which carry a maximum of five years in prison. Taylor should get a break in the interest of proportionate sentencing, Malacko argued.

Kyle agreed. Taylor pleaded guilty to two counts of aiding and abetting sexual trafficking by force, fraud or coercion, and to one count of possessing documents in furtherance of trafficking. Kyle reminded him that his plea agreement says he gives up his right to appeal if he is sentenced to 108 months or less.

Minnesota has a reputation for as a site for recruiting teenage prostitutes. In 1997, police in a St. Louis suburb broke up a major interstate prostitution ring involving Minneapolis juveniles. The ring, headquartered in Minnesota, had customers in 24 states and Canada and made more than $1 million a year.

Kyle said Taylor, while a leader in his own group, was hardly operating a major prostitution ring.