Iowa residents sentenced in Virginia to long prison terms in sex-trafficking, torture case

RICHMOND, Va. – Two Iowa residents have been sentenced to decades in prison for forcing a young woman into prostitution and torturing her, leaving her with physical and psychological scars that a judge said might never heal.

U.S. District Judge Henry Hudson sentenced Aldair Hodza to almost 42 years in prison. He sentenced Laura Sorensen to 40 years. Hudson said that after looking at photographs of the victim's wounds, he decided the top end of the sentencing guidelines were not enough.

According to court papers, the defendants from Clive, Iowa, forced to have sex with men who answered online ads and burned her with keys and scissors heated over the RV's stove and extinguished cigarettes on her body. The drove nails into her feet and poured bleach into her wounds.