Sex trafficker sentenced to 40 years in prison for prostituting underage girls

SAN DIEGO - A Hemet man was sentenced today in federal court in San Diego to 40 years in prison for forcing a 16-year-old girl into prostitution and keeping the money she made for himself.

A jury found Luther Gene Ray, 33, guilty in December 2015 of sex trafficking of a minor by force, fraud or coercion.

The victim, a runaway, had met Ray the previous year, about a month after his release from an eight-year prison stint for committing the same crime in Los Angeles, according to prosecutors. At the time, he was on supervised

release and required to register as a sex offender.

Though Ray promote...