A 39-year-old woman pleaded guilty Friday in Williamsburg-James City County Circuit Court to a pair of misdemeanor charges related to prostitution.
Police arrested Florentina Baires Ponce and 23-year-old Norma Ramos Antonio on Oct. 9 at an apartment in the Clifton Garden Apartments behind the Monticello Shopping Center in Williamsburg. Antonio pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor prostitution charge in November. Ponce accepted a plea deal, which erased felony charges of transporting a person for prostitution and receiving money from the earnings of a prostitute. She pleaded guilty to aiding prostitution and using a car in the commission of prostitution.
Ponce was sentenced to 24 months in jail with 13 months suspended. Her attorney, Michael Hyman, asked Williamsburg-James City County Circuit Court Judge Michael McGinty to cap his client’s sentence at time served — she has been in custody since her October arrest — however McGinty elected to give her an 11-month sentence.
During the November hearing, Williamsburg Police Department Investigator Lang Craighill testified he led a team of police officers on a sting operation in October. He said units observed the occupants of a Toyota speak to a man expecting prostitutes in front of the former Big Lots at Monticello Shopping Center. That man was a criminal informant, according to Williamsburg-James City County Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Cathy Black.
The officers watched the Toyota drive to a nearby apartment, where Antonio got out and went upstairs with the man. Black said Antonio accepted $40 from the man and disrobed before police came in and arrested her. Ponce, the driver of the Toyota, was arrested in the parking lot.
Ponce and Antonio took turns with the clientele, meeting with 25 to 26 clients in the area during a two-day stretch before their arrests, Black said. Nobody else was arrested in connection to the prostitution.
During the November hearing, Craighill said Ponce told him at the time of her arrest that she had been active for about 18 months around Williamsburg and in Richmond and Newport News. She also told him she had provided 10 or more women during those 18 months to various clients.
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