For $40, Coast child trafficking victim beaten and raped, according to police
A Gulfport man charged in a human trafficking case this week, along with five others, paid $40 to repeatedly rape a 14-year-old girl over an 11-hour period despite her pleas for him to stop, according to a criminal affidavit filed in the case.
According to Gulfport police Det. Justin Clifton, the girl was in the custody of the state Department of Child Protection Services, when she ran away from the extended-stay motel where CPS kept some of the children in their custody.
After she left, that man and others are accused of trafficking the girl for sex at different places on the Mississippi Coast and in nearby New Orleans.
Police found the girl on Jan. 22 hiding in a bathroom in a motel.
Among the six charged in the case, Bobby Terrell Mills, 49, of Gulfport, is facing the majority of charges with one count each of human trafficking, kidnapping, extortion and forcible rape. He is being held on a total bond of $1.6 in the Harrison County jail.
A beating, a rape, and a child’s pleas to stop
According to Clifton, Mills paid another co-defendant to have sex with the girl on Jan. 6 once her traffickers dropped her off on the side of the road near his home in the 1500 block of 20th Street.
Once there, Mills allegedly lured the girl into his home by threatening to call the police to report the teen for being a runaway.
Inside the home, police said, Mills repeatedly attacked the girl, repeatedly punching her in the face with his fists and beating her over the head with part of a brick cinder block when she tried to refuse his demands for oral sex.
Mills continued to force himself on the girl, later forcing off her clothes and throwing her on a foam mattress on the floor of his home, where he raped her again and again. In addition, Mills took nude photos of the girl that he threatened to share with the public to keep her inside.
At some point during the 11-hour ordeal, the girl finally managed to climb out of a window at the home to get away.
In addition to Mills, the others arrested in the human trafficking case are listed below, along with their charges:
- Richard Sherrol Weir, 61, one count of human trafficking.
- Marcus Alan Mann, 35, one count of human trafficking and kidnapping.
- Michael Eric Moses, 40, one count of kidnapping.
- Jeffrey Devon Pruitt, 41, one countof human trafficking.
- Latasha Ann Smith, 27, one count of human trafficking.
A place to sleep or a crime
During a preliminary hearing in the case for Moses, his attorney, Lee Russell, argued that his client had not committed a crime, but said the girl came to him for a place to sleep out of the cold.
Moses, he said, knew the child and her mother, a habitual drug user who was often homeless, and wanted to help her when she came to him for a warm place to sleep.
Police tracked down the girl in the room Moses had rented on Jan. 22.
When police first got to the room and knocked on the door, Clifton said no one answered. Eventually, he said police gained access, went inside and found the girl hiding in the bathroom. Police confirmed that Moses had rented the room and that the child had been staying there at times.
Before they gained access to the room, Clifton said Moses dialed 911 and told police the child was not in the room he had rented at the motel.
He later admitted the child had been staying there at times, but said he had given the child a place to sleep in the past because he knew the child and her brother often ended up sleeping under bridges and in homeless camps with their mom.
During the course of the investigation, Clifton admitted there was no evidence to suggest that Moses had engaged in sex with the child, but said he should have reported her whereabouts to police because she was a runaway who had escaped the custody of CPS workers.
Despite the arguments, Judge Albert Fountain found enough probable cause to bind the case against Moses over to a grand jury for indictment.
The judge also denied a request to lower his $250,000.
This story was originally published February 13, 2026 at 5:00 AM.
