Jury convicts Milwaukee man of sex trafficking

MILWAUKEE-- A 45-year-old Milwaukee man was found guilty of sex trafficking, child abuse and other charges.



After 9 days, more than 10 witnesses and countless amounts of evidence, the jury reached a verdict on Thursday morning.



Roy Weatherall was originally facing 20 charges, but prosecutors dismissed 5 counts on Wednesday.



The jury found Weatherall is guilty of 14 out of 15 charges, which include sex trafficking, sexually assaulting and beating up a young girl, soliciting others for prostitution and trying to intimidate witnesses to not testify against him.



The only count he was not found guilty of is false imprisonment. Prosecutors did not have sufficient evidence to prove that Weatherall kept a young girl against her will in a car at knife point.



During closing arguments, defense attorney James Goldman insisted that Weatherall did no solicit the young girl, known as SDD. \"She indicates it was her choice, she wanted to do it. She wanted to do it with him or without him,\" Goldman said.



But Assistant District Attorney Sara Lewis argued that the defendants sole purpose was to run prostitutes.



\"To suggest that somehow, this child, SDD, is doing it on her own is completely and utterly preposterous,\" said Lewis during closing arguments.



Weatherall now faces a maximum sentence of more than 200 years in prison.

 

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