Alleged leader of human trafficking ring in Pierce County sentenced to 30 years
An alleged leader of a human trafficking ring in Pierce County has been sentenced.
Superior Court Judge Stephanie Arend sentenced Matthew Jeffrey Holt to 30 years in prison Friday.
The 28-year-old had pleaded guilty to first-degree conspiracy to commit human trafficking, two counts of second-degree human trafficking, and promoting commercial sexual abuse of a minor
He’s one of 11 charged in connection to the ring.
Several others previously got sentences that ranged from a year and seven and a half months to 15 years in prison.
Some are scheduled to be sentenced later this year, and one awaits trial.
Investigators learned about the operation from phone calls Holt made from jail, where he was being held while authorities investigated him for suspicion of forgery.
He and fellow gang members paid for motel rooms, set up advertisements and collected money as part of the operation, which they ran in 2016 and 2017 in Tacoma, Lakewood, Olympia, Lacey and Bellingham, charging papers alleged.
There were at least 16 victims the gang prostituted, five were minors, and some were as young as 13, according to court records.
Charging papers described times that Holt threatened the lives of the victims or assaulted them, including when he allegedly punched a woman in the face after she said she wanted to see her baby, who was with him.
The woman suffered a seizure, which Holt filmed, the charging papers said.
Holt tied up, beat and raped another woman for hours, charging papers said, after she asked him to leave her home because she was worried Child Protective Services would take her children if he stayed.
“One of her young children came upstairs when he heard her scream and Holt struck the child, also,” deputy prosecutor Greg Greer wrote in the declaration for determination of probable cause.
Defense attorney Kent Underwood described Holt’s traumatic and violent childhood in a sentencing memorandum to the court.
“Mr. Holt was essentially left to fend for himself and predictably fell into a lifestyle that he was born into, brought up around, and that he was accustomed to,” the memorandum said in part. “... Add to the already immense hurdles that Mr. Holt would need to overcome in order to be a law-abiding citizen and contributing member of society, there is systemic implicit racism permeating our entire society, increasing the odds against Mr. Holt achieving lawful success.”
This story was originally published June 15, 2020 at 10:00 PM.
