Courtesy of Smith County

A Tyler man was found guilty and awaits sentencing for his role in the sex trafficking of a woman he lured last year to a Tyler hotel.

Dekendrick Lekeith Ross, 41, pleaded not guilty Wednesday to the charges in a bench trial in the 7th District Court. A bench trial is a trial by judge as opposed to a trial by jury.

Department of Public Safety criminal investigators started the human trafficking investigation in March 2017. Ross was arrested by the DPS in June 2017. 

The complaint obtained by the Tyler Morning Telegraph said the two-month-long investigation revealed Ross and his wife Crystal Leshae Lilly, 26, of Tyler, recruited a woman into prostitution. 

The complaint said Ross and Lilly lured the woman to a Tyler hotel by telling her she would be making phone sex calls.

When they got to the Studio 6 Extended Stay in the 3300 block of Troup Highway, Ross told the woman he would be making arrangements through his phone or computer to advertise her to prospective clients, according to the complaint.

Ross told the woman she would have to perform sexual acts with clients to earn money to pay him and his wife back for the hotel room.

Ross posted ads on multiple websites for the woman and coordinated the clients’ sexual encounters through a texting app. Investigators found ads for the woman on websites frequently used in prostitution. 

Investigators said Ross provided the woman with a cellphone and the texts to the texting app went to her phone and Ross’ phone. The complaint said Ross would get the texts from the app so he would know how much money the woman was making from the clients. 

Investigators said the woman was forced to perform sexual acts with multiple clients for money for about 16 to 19 hours a day.

Ross also took the woman to Denton and Little Rock, Arkansas, where she was forced and coerced to perform prostitution. 

The woman moved away about a month later and was able to get away from Ross. She told her story to DPS investigators in May 2017. 

Ross was arrested June 15, 2017, on a charge of trafficking of person benefits from forced labor or service and for promotion of prostitution. 

Ross will be sentenced April 27 by 7th District Court Judge Kerry Russell. 

Lilly awaits trial in the 7th District Court. 

For the Silent, a local organization working to prevent human trafficking, praised the Smith County District Attorney’s Office in a social media post for trying this human trafficking cases at the state level.