Public Safety
Man Who Prostituted Girls in Coachella Valley Pleads Guilty
INDIO (CNS) – A 33-year-old Indio man who prostituted minors throughout the Coachella Valley pleaded guilty Thursday to multiple felony charges.
Dewayne Deanthony Williams was charged with three counts of inducing minors to work in sex-for-hire operations and one count each of human trafficking, lewd acts on a child and procuring a person for the purpose of prostitution, according to court records. He was also charged with a misdemeanor count of sexual battery.
He pleaded guilty Thursday at the Larson Justice Center in Indio to two counts of inducing minors to work in sex-for-hire operations, lewd acts on a child and procuring a person for the purpose of prostitution.
He’s set to be sentenced June 23 at the Larson Justice Center in Indio.
According to a declaration in support of his arrest filed by Riverside County Sheriff’s Department investigator Damen Butvidas, he received a report March 4, 2022, of suspected human trafficking involving a 16-year-old girl identified only as “V-1.”
Three days after the report, V-1 said she had sex with Williams, when she was 15 years old, so she could use his vehicle, Butvidas said. She also said that her 15-year-old friend, identified only as “V-2,” gave the defendant a hand job in exchange for fentanyl pills.
Both incidents occurred at the parking lot of The Shops in Palm Desert and based on cell phone and Google historical information. The incident with V-1 happened Jan. 15, 2022 and the incident with V-2 happened prior to that, according to Butvidas.
On March 22, 2022, he said he spoke with a third victim, identified only as “V-3,” who said that she fell asleep drunk in Williams car at an unknown park in Indio when she was 14 years old.
“She said she woke up and saw/felt Williams reaching into her T-shirt from the collar,” Butvidas wrote. “He touched her on her left breast under her bra.”
On March 30, 2022, Butvidas spoke with a fourth victim, identified only as “V-4” who said that she met Williams at a party in Indio when she was 16 years old and had sex with him in exchange for marijuana.
According to sheriff’s officials, the defendant compelled girls to perform sexual services in Indio, Desert Hot Springs and Palm Desert.
The investigation that began March 4, 2022, by the Anti-Human Trafficking Task Force culminated in an arrest warrant being served on the defendant at the San Ysidro crossing in San Diego County on April 21, 2022.
Williams has no documented prior felony convictions in Riverside County.
Copyright 2023, City News Service, Inc.
By: Pristine Villarreal
May 19, 2023
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