Two people from California accused of human trafficking were sentenced to probation for promoting prostitution Monday after prosecutors said the woman they brought to Oahu was not forced to travel here or to work as a prostitute.
"She came on her own free will. They were going to come here to make money," Deputy City Prosecutor Rochelle Vidinha said in state court Monday morning.
Circuit Judge Randal K.O. Lee sentenced Raymond D. Doyle and Toye E. Welburn each to probation with one year in jail. He gave them credit for the seven months they have already been in custody since their arrest in Waikiki in March and suspended the balance of their jail terms pending a review in February of their performance on probation.
Doyle, 26, and Welburn, 24, pleaded no contest in July to promoting prostitution. Doyle also pleaded no contest to terroristic threatening.
The woman told police that Doyle and Welburn brought her to Hawaii and showed her violent videos on a laptop computer to discourage her from fleeing.
Vidinha told Lee that Doyle bought the woman lingerie, took photographs of her, advertised her services, set up her dates and collected all of her money. She said Doyle treated the woman as his property or possession.
One of the dates turned out to be with an undercover police officer who arrested her, and when the officer tried to assist the woman, Doyle threatened him because he thought the officer was trying to steal the woman from him.
Doyle’s lawyer Myles Breiner said all three people met in Los Angeles and agreed to engage in prostitution. He said they had traveled to San Diego to engage in prostitution before traveling together to Hawaii to do the same.
"I was way over my head getting caught up in something I had no business doing," Doyle said.
In granting Doyle and Welburn probation, Lee said, "I find it troubling that (the woman), when she’s confronted by the police and arrested, only then did she complain about the conduct."
