By PAUL HAMMEL
Nebraska Examiner
LINCOLN — An Omaha man was sentenced Tuesday to life in prison after being convicted of trafficking three minors for sex.
Carney Turner, 42, of Omaha was given a life sentence by U.S. District Judge Robert Rossiter Jr. for one count of conspiracy to sex traffic minors, three counts of sex trafficking of a minor and two counts of enticement of a minor.
A co-defendant, Julisha Biggs, 20, of Omaha, was given an 87-month prison sentence for her role.
A third co-defendant, Sidney Marker, is scheduled to be sentenced Monday.
An investigation of the trio began in September 2020 after electronic messages were discovered between a minor female and Turner during another sex trafficking investigation.
The minor female later reported that she had been sex trafficked by Turner for approximately three months and that Turner had kept money from the sex sales.
In October 2020, a second minor female reported that she had been sexually assaulted by a man in a hotel room after Turner paid her to meet the man.
In November 2020, a third minor female was reported missing from her foster home, and an online sex advertisement was discovered citing a phone number associated with Turner.
Turner recruited, advertised and arranged commercial sex sales for minors between approximately January 2020 and February 2021, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. The sex sales took place at hotels in and around Omaha, as well as at an apartment in Ralston, leased by Marker.
Katherine Greer, a special agent with Homeland Security investigations, said the case illustrates that criminals like these are “more concerned with their own greed” than the horror they inflict on the vulnerable teen victims.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice.
Besides Homeland Security, the Omaha Police Department, and the Nebraska Attorney General’s Office also worked the investigation.