OAKLAND, CA – MAY13: The Alameda County Superior Courthouse is seen from this drone view in Oakland, Calif., on Thursday, May 13, 2021. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)
OAKLAND — A Bay Area man will serve a two-year prison term to settle allegations that he brought a sex worker to a hotel to meet an undercover officer, court records show.
Charlie Jones, 21, pleaded no contest to a pandering charge and a probation violation in exchange for the two-year prison term. Jones was originally charged with pimping, pandering, and being a felon in possession of a firearm, court records show.
The plea deal was finalized in June, but Jones wasn’t transferred to the state prison system until last month, records show. He is incarcerated in North Kern State Prison, records show.
Jones was arrested last March after he allegedly brought a 20-year-old sex worker to America’s Best Value Inn on East 12th Street in Oakland to meet an undercover officer who had responded to a prostitution ad. When the officers attempted to arrest him, he ran away and threw a gun over a fence as he fled, police said in court records.
The woman claimed Jones was her boyfriend, not a pimp, but text messages on her phone contradicted that, authorities said. At Jones’ April preliminary hearing, his attorney argued there wasn’t enough evidence to tie the phone to Jones.
Jones will be eligible for parole this January, records show.
Originally published at Nate Gartrell