A Texas woman whose case received support from activists and celebrities after her family alleged she was a victim of sex trafficking has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for her role in a fatal robbery, the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office announced Monday.
Zephaniah “Zephi” Trevino, 20, was charged in connection with the death of Carlos Arajeni-Arriaza Murillo, 24, who was fatally shot during a 2019 robbery at an apartment in Grand Prairie, Tex. Her attorney said Trevino pleaded guilty to murder and aggravated robbery to avoid risking a possible life sentence.
“Instead, it is a testament to the challenges of navigating a legal system that currently does not provide an affirmative defense for victims of sex trafficking,” Moore said in a statement to The Washington Post, “and [a] district attorney who has refused [to] view this case within a necessary trauma-informed lens.”
The state of Ohio vs. a sex-trafficked teenager. Trevino was among three people charged in Murillo’s death. Philip Aguilera Baldenegro and Jesse Martinez, who were 19 and 18, respectively, at the time of the shooting, were each charged with capital murder and aggravated robbery and are awaiting trial.