Human Trafficking Victims Kept Hidden Under Mattresses, Forced Into Prostitution; Couple Arrested

A man and woman have been convicted for holding two women against their will in two California motels. The victims were forced into prostitution and physically abused.

Marquesah Troycine Fox, 35, and Anthony Larue Jackson, 44, were arrested by the Orange County Human Trafficking Taskforce in November 2020. The arrest was made after the victims fled a room at a Travelodge in Anaheim and one of them got a motel worker to call the police, said the Orange County District Attorney’s Office in a statement.

The victim said Fox and Jackson picked her up from a bus stop in Ontario, where she was abandoned by a friend without a pair of shoes or a phone on the pretext of giving her a ride. Initially, the couple offered their motel room to the victim. Later, they stole the victim’s ID and informed her that Jackson was going to act as her pimp.

The pair forced her and another woman to “perform sex acts in exchange for money,” reported the Orange County Register. Both the victims were forced to hand over the money they earned through prostitution to Jackson.

Jackson and Fox held the women captive for over six days in two Southern California motels. The women were forced to stay hidden under the motel mattresses whenever they were not with clients.

While under captivity, Jackson sexually assaulted both the victims and allegedly raped one of them.

According to the prosecutor, the two women were able to escape the motel room after Jackson and Fox got into a fight that turned physical on Nov. 4, 2020.

On Thursday, Sept. 9, an Orange County Superior Court Jury found Jackson guilty and convicted him of two felony counts of human trafficking, two felony counts of pimping, two felony counts of pandering, three felony counts of forcible oral copulation, one felony count of assault with a firearm, one felony count of kidnapping, two felony counts of forcible rape and one felony count of sexual penetration by a foreign object in concert.

Jackson faces up to 147 years and four months to life in prison. Fox faces a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison.

“These women were held against their will and subjected to a living hell while being degraded and sexually and physically abused,” Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said in the statement. “These are vulnerable victims who when they saw their chance to escape, ran for safety," he added.