HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) A 45-year-old Houston man has been sent to prison and ordered to pay nearly $1 million following his convictions on five separate counts of sex trafficking involving adults and minors, announced U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Patrick.
A Houston federal jury deliberated for less than three hours before convicting David Mearis back in October of 2019, following three days of trial.
Monday, U.S. District Judge Kenneth Hoyt sentenced Mearis to life in federal prison on each count to run concurrently. He was further ordered to pay $921,680 in restitution to the victims.
At the hearing, the court heard excerpts from victim impact statements two of the victims had prepared.
East Texas pimp gets life sentence for trafficking Houston women, girls
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David Mearis, 44, of Houston.Texas DPS
An East Texas pimp who trafficked children and adults in an “eight-year reign of terror” in Houston was ordered Monday to serve a life sentence in federal prison.
David Wayne Mearis, 45, of Orange, was given five concurrent life terms to be followed by 25 years of supervised release if those sentences are ever set aside. U.S. District Judge Kenneth M. Hoyt also sentenced him to pay nearly $1 million in restitution to multiple victims.
The man an FBI official referred to as a “career pimp” was convicted in October 2019 by a federal jury of forcing several girls into prostitution and grooming teen victims for gigs that endured into their adult years. He threatened, abused and peddled his victims online and on the streets day and night including one who was developmentally disabled. He operated in north Houston and the infamous Bissonnet Tr