OPELIKA, Ala. (AP) -- A man accused of keeping a 13-year-old girl in a house and plying her with drugs so he and other men could have sex with her was convicted of human trafficking.
Brian Askew, 40, of Auburn could receive a sentence of life without parole at a sentencing hearing set for July, a prosecutor said, and five other people await trial.
A Lee County jury convicted Askew on Wednesday after prosecutors presented evidence showing he kept the youth in a "trap house," where he and other men had sexual relations with her as Askew gave her drugs, the Opelika-Auburn News reported. The girl had run away from the Lee County Youth Development Center.
With guns, ammunition, cameras and men in the house, the girl was kept in a "climate of fear," a prosecutor said.
Askew was arrested in 2018, several months after girl's ordeal.