Conviction partially reversed on unlawfully enhanced sentence.

Byline: Dan Heilman

A man convicted on several counts of sex-related crime will get a new sentencing hearing thanks to a partial reversal of his conviction based on an unlawfully enhanced sentence at the district court level.

The appellant, Rashad Ivy, was charged in June 2015 with second-degree sex trafficking and domestic assault by strangulation, with the complaint later amended to add 10 related charges, including second-degree solicitation, sex trafficking and conspiracy to engage in sex trafficking.

During Ivy's trial, Tonya Price of Homeland Security Investigations testified as an expert in human trafficking, providing the court with descriptions and definitions related to sex trafficking. Ivy's "main girl" was Danika Johnson, who moved in with Ivy in September 2014 and shortly after began working for him as a prostitute. At his direction, Johnson also recruited other women to become prostitutes.

On June 13, 2015, one of Ivy's prostitutes, named A.B. by the court, got into a fight with Johnson, whom A.B. hit. Ivy, according to A.B., choked her, punched her in the side of the head, made her ears bleed, and held her face underwater in the bathtub. A.B. eventually convinced Ivy to take her to the hospital, where she told staff that appellant was prostituting her. A.B.'s statements prompted a police investigation, and appellant's vehicle was stopped later that day.

Inside the car were two cell phones, prepaid Visa cards, and multiple condoms. W.M-H., a 17-year-old female in the car when it was stopped, first told police that Ivy had recruited her to work as a stripper and a prostitute, but recanted that story at trial, saying she couldn't remember what she had told police.

A Ramsey County District Court jury found appellant guilty of all charged offenses except for two counts involving W.M.-H. After a sentencing trial, the jury also found 15 aggravating factors. The court imposed consecutive sentences for four counts of aiding and abetting second-degree sex trafficking and three counts of second-degree solicitation to practice prostitution. It also imposed concurrent sentences for the third-degree criminal-sexual-conduct offense and the domestic-assault offense, for a total length of 700 months.

Diminishing enhancement

Ivy appealed his convictions of 10 counts that included sex-trafficking, criminal sexual conduct, and solicitation to practice prostitution. In doing so, he argued that the District Court erred by denying his motion to...