LOS ANGELES
A South Bay man who – along with three other accomplices – victimized a 15-year-old girl by creating sexually explicit videos of her has been sentenced to 18 years in federal prison, the Justice Department announced this week.
U.S. District Judge Terry J. Hatter Jr. sentenced Leprinceton Dewon Burks, 38, of Carson.
In June 2021, after a four-day trial, a jury found Burks guilty of two counts of conspiracy to produce child pornography, two counts of production of child pornography, and one of possession of child pornography.
From July 2011 to August 2011, Burks and three accomplices filmed the victim participating in various sex acts. Burks was visible in the videos that law enforcement recovered from his laptop computer and a co-conspirator’s laptop and cell phone.
“The videos show that [Burks] was an enthusiastic participant in this exploitation and when questioned by law enforcement, he said that he thought it was ‘funny,’” prosecutors argued in a sentencing memorandum.
Burks is the final defendant to be sentenced in this case. In August 2015, a federal grand jury charged Burks and three co-defendants in an indictment for sexually exploiting the victim. Each of Burks’ co-defendants pleaded guilty in 2016 to criminal charges in this case and have been sentenced to federal prison terms.
Darrius Marques Sutton, 32, of Compton, is 13 years and four months in prison.
Darius Dajohn Burks, 34, of Los Angeles, Leprinceton Burks’ brother, is serving a sentence of six years in federal prison; and
Edwin Donnell Franklin, 35, is serving a four-year federal prison sentence.
The FBI and the Los Angeles Police Department investigated this matter.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Devon Myers of the Cyber and Intellectual Property Crimes Section prosecuted this case.