A pair of women facing charges after they were arrested in a Williamsburg Police prostitution sting appeared in court Thursday, with one pleading guilty to a misdemeanor prostitution charge and the other’s two felony charges advancing to a higher court.
The Williamsburg Police Department arrested 39-year-old Florentina Baires Ponce and 23-year-old Norma Ramos Antonio on Oct. 9 at an apartment in the Clinton Garden Apartments behind the Monticello Shopping Center in Williamsburg. Antonio pleaded guilty to misdemeanor prostitution at Thursday’s hearing.
Ponce faces felony charges of transporting a person for prostitution and receiving money from the earnings of a prostitute, which were certified to Circuit Court by Williamsburg-James City County District Court Judge Colleen Killilea.
Thursday’s hearing was split into two portions, one for each defendant. Williamsburg Police Investigator Lang Craighill testified during Ponce’s hearing he led a team of police officers in a sting operation for suspected prostitution Oct. 9. He said three units were deployed around the Monticello Shopping Center and Clinton Gardens Apartment. They observed the occupants of a Toyota speak in front of Big Lots with a man expecting prostitutes.
They next saw the Toyota drive up to an apartment where he said a woman exited the car and entered the building. The man expecting the prostitutes walked from Big Lots to the apartment. Officers then entered the apartment where they found Antonio naked with a fully-clothed man. Other officers arrested Ponce outside, by the Toyota, Craighill said.
Ponce agreed to speak with officers with the help of a translator. Craighill said police told Ponce she had been the subject of a prostitution investigation for some time. He said she acknowledged to officers she was involved in prostitution, telling them she had been active for about 18 months around Williamsburg and in Newport News and Richmond.
Craighill said she told police she had both acted as a prostitute and arranged services, as she is accused of doing in this instance. She told police she had provided 10 or more women during those 18 months to people soliciting the services of prostitutes. She also told police Antonio had come down from Maryland on Oct. 7 and had engaged in about 20 incidences of prostitution between then and her Oct. 9 arrest.
Craighill said Ponce told police there was a flat fee of $30 for vaginal intercourse, and that she and Antonio split the fee evenly.
Ponce’s attorney, Christine Andreoli, asked Killilea to not certify the charges to Circuit Court because it was unclear how questions to Ponce where phrased by the interpreter Oct. 9. Williamsburg-James City County Commonwealth’s Attorney Nate Green disagreed, saying “at this point, there is more than enough probable cause.”
Killilea sided with Green, saying questions of interpretation would be best handled in Circuit Court. Craighill said there exists a recording of the conversation between Ponce and police.
During Antonio’s hearing, Green said Antonio cooperated fully with police and confirmed what Ponce had told them. He said she is an illegal immigrant and that Immigration has been contacted, though no detainer has been filed against Antonio.
Killilea accepted Antonio’s plea, sentencing her to six months in jail with five months suspended and a fine of $250 plus court costs. Antonio and Ponce have been in custody at the Virginia Peninsula Regional Jail since their arrest. Killilea said the time Antonio has already served fulfills her active jail sentence.
When the women were arrested, Maj. Greg Riley of the Williamsburg Police Department said officers monitored a conversation between the two women and an undercover person who was cooperating with police. The undercover person was in the apartment where Antonio was arrested, Riley said. The cooperating party is not facing any charges.
Ponce will appear in Williamsburg-James City County Circuit Court at 1 p.m. Dec. 11. Charges generally begin in District Court, where a judge determines if more serious charges, such as felonies, have enough evidence to advance to circuit court. Circuit court is the highest court for Virginia’s localities. If convicted on both charges, she faces between four and 20 years in prison and up to $200,000 in fines.
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