An El Cajon man has been convicted of attempting to recruit a teen girl and a woman into prostitution in East and South County, authorities said.
Steven Terrell Lewis, 39, drove up to the girl, aged 14, in April 2024 while she was walking to a friend’s home in El Cajon, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
He used his car to block her way, then grabbed her cellphone in order to get her number, prosecutors said. Once he began texting her, he sent a sexually explicit picture while identifying himself as “Pimpin.”
Lewis tried to convince her to work as a prostitute, but the girl told a coach at her high school and El Cajon police, along with Sheriff’s deputies, were notified.
One week later, prosecutors say Lewis contacted a 22-year-old woman through a personals website and directed her to work as a prostitute in the South Bay. However, she was picked up by an undercover National City police officer who posed as a potential client.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office said the woman was able to leave prostitution, but Lewis continued sending her threatening messages in order to get her to resume working for him.
One of this text messages to her stated “run me some bread or I’m pulling up on u when u least expect” it. Another said, “I can always find u.”
Authorities arrested Lewis on May 16, 2024. They suspect Lewis has attempted to solicit other victims into prostitution. Prosecutors cited a picture found on his phone of a handwritten note.
It read “If I find out one more time that this car is following my daughter down Graves Ave we will have a problem.”
The U.S. Attorney’s Office said Lewis was known to drive a white, four-door 1996 Oldsmobile with California license plate number 3TIF671 and a brown or beige four-door 1986 Chevrolet with California license plate number 1REC517.
Lewis is scheduled to be sentenced on Aug. 1. The attempted coercion/enticement of a minor count carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years. The attempted sex trafficking by force/coercion charge has a 15-year mandatory minimum term.
Anyone who believes they or someone they know had an encounter with him, or knows the author of the note about the child being followed, was asked to call the San Diego Human Trafficking Task Force at 1-888-373-7888 or text 233733.
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