Man pleads guilty to trafficking, admits he raped woman before leaving her in California a forest

A Southern California man accused of sex trafficking a woman addicted to fentanyl pleaded guilty in federal court to one count of sex trafficking by force and coercion on Friday, March 25, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

33-year-old Leslie Anthony Bailey of Wilmington also admitted in his plea agreement that he raped the woman and abandoned her in the Angeles National Forest.

Bailey messaged the woman, who was receiving treatment for fentanyl addiction at a facility in Los Angeles, on social media in February 2022 and offered to pick her up and give her fentanyl after she mentioned going through withdrawal symptoms, accorrding to his plea agreement.

He picked her up on Feb. 5, purchased fentanyl pills and then took her to Long Beach, where he lived at the time, and gave her some of the pills, according to his plea agreement.

On Feb. 6, Bailey drove her to an area in Anaheim expecting the victim to engage in sex acts for money and to give him the money received, telling her that he would provide her with more fentanyl after. After she engaged in multiple transactional sex acts, Bailey gave the victim more fentanyl and brought her back to his home in Long Beach, according to the plea agreement.

The next day, Feb. 7, Bailey stopped the victim from leaving his residence and told her he would beat her if she tried to leave again. He drove her to Anaheim again, for prostitution, once again promising fentanyl afterwards, according to the U.S. DOJ.

When the victim asked Bailey to return her to the drug treatment facility on Feb. 8, he agreed to drive her back. But, he instead drove to the Angeles National Forest, ordering the victim to get out of the car in a remote area. Bailey then beat and raped the victim and drove away, leaving her in the forest, according to the plea agreement.

In Bailey’s plea agreement, he also admitted to trafficking another woman a year later, in 2023, once again using social media to contact the victim and then having her work for him as a prostitute in Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego counties, using force and threats of force to control her in some instances.

Bailey is scheduled to be sentenced on July 18, when he will face a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years in federal prison and up to life in prison.