Jury convicts pair for sex trafficking of children in Ohio

CLEVELAND – A man in prison for child rape and an Ohio woman were convicted Friday in Cleveland of dozens of counts related to the sex trafficking of children as young as 9 years old.

The jury convicted Andre Boynton, 42, and Anika George, 39, of North Royalton, on charges that include human trafficking, conspiracy and multiple counts of child rape and child pornography, Cleveland.com reported. They are scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 25. George's attorney declined to comment Saturday. Boynton's attorney did return telephone messages seeking comment.

Prosecutors said Boynton, serving a life sentence in Ohio for raping a 14-year-old girl in 2008, ordered George over a prison phone to abduct boys from Cleveland and bring them back to her apartment. That's where prosecutors said she used a cellphone to record her having sex with four boys and the boys having sex with a 14-year-old developmentally disabled girl. Prosecutors said the abductions and rapes occurred over a monthlong period in 2014.

Both were also convicted of voyeurism charges for what prosecutors said was George photographing 11 disabled elderly people in various stages of undress at a suburban Cleveland nursing home where she worked.

"I don't think this building has ever seen this level of depravity," Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael O'Malley said after the verdicts.

Boynton instructed George how to record the rapes and how she should transfer recordings of the assaults to memory cards to deliver to him in prison. No cards were found in a search of his cell.

The news site reported that the mother of two of the boys cried and rocked back and forth as Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Sherrie Miday read the verdicts.

George was kicked out of the courtroom on the first day of trial when she became disruptive and tried to overturn the defense table. She refused to cooperate with her attorney in her defense and smiled as Miday read the verdicts. Boynton is a self-proclaimed sovereign citizen who wanted to represent himself at trial. He showed no emotion and quietly argued with his attorney while the verdicts were read.

Boynton could be sentenced to life without parole after the jury found him to be a violent sexual predator. George faces a possible life sentence with no parole before 10 years.