Boston Man Sentenced to 30 Years in Prison For Sex Trafficking 25-Year-Old Maine Woman

A Massachusetts man was sentenced to 30 years in prison Monday after a being found guilty by a federal jury in Maine of sex trafficking a young woman from South Portland through force, fraud and coercion and obstruction.

Ricardo Middleton, also known as “red,” 32, of Boston, received a 30-year prison sentence to be followed by 10 years of supervised release.

[RELATED: MA Man Convicted of Sex Trafficking 25-year-old South Portland Woman…]

“This significant sentence imposed by the court reflects the severity of the defendant’s exploitation of the victim over three days. [Middleton] used drugs, threats, physical force and rape to force her to engage in commercial sex for his own profit,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division in a Monday press release.

“These acts were odious and intolerable. They denied the victim’s basic humanity. The Justice Department will vigorously prosecute human trafficking crimes to hold offenders accountable and to seek justice for survivors of these heinous crimes,” Clarke added.

Also sentenced Monday was Middleton’s co-defendant, Sherry Jones of Dorchester, Mass., who received a sentence of 80 months in prison to be followed by five years of supervised release.

Jones had previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit sex trafficking in May 2023.

In Middleton’s four-day December 2023 trial, federal prosecutors presented evidence detailing three days in November 2015, when Middleton targeted a 25-year-old woman living in South Portland, and coerced her to engage in commercial sex through drugs, lies, intimidation, physical violence and rape.

According to court records, Middleton, alongside his co-defendants Sherry Jones of Dorchester and Matthew Thatcher of Scarborough, Maine, transported the victim to several locations in both Maine and Massachusetts.

The victim testified during trial that while she was being transported, Middleton raped her, told her that he was “going to make a lot of money off” her, beat her and threw pennies at her when she said she was hungry and asked to buy food, according to the Maine U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Middleton was also accused of instructing a co-defendant not to cooperate with prosecutors or to incriminate him.

Thatcher pleaded guilty in November 2023 to interstate transportation in aid of racketeering and contempt of court, and was sentenced on March 22, 2024 to 44 months in prison and three years of supervised release.

Neither Thatcher nor Jones testified at the December trial.

“Commercial sex trafficking traumatizes its victims and strips them of their freedom and dignity,” U.S. Attorney for the District of Maine Darcie McElwee said Monday. “Addressing this serious crime is a priority to my office. I commend the commitment of the law enforcement team that diligently worked this important case for years, always keeping the safety and recovery of Middleton’s vulnerable victim as the main priority.”