Print edition: 
WICHITA — Tears rolled down the teenager's face as she talked about taking money for sex.
The girl twisted uncomfortably in the witness chair Wednesday as a prosecutor asked her questions about the man she said paid for her Internet ads, gave her rides to motels to sell herself and had sex with her.
Two weeks after her 15th birthday, police picked the girl up at a motel in east Wichita, after she testified a man gave her a $100 bill for sex.
After hearing the girl's testimony during a preliminary hearing, Sedgwick County District Judge David Kaufman ordered the two men accused of buying and selling her to face trial in Wichita's latest human trafficking case.
Michael Neloms, 25, ended up with two even more serious crimes than the aggravated trafficking charge that brought him to court. The girl said Neloms also had sex with her, leading to two charges of aggravated indecent liberties with a child.
Michael Gress, 54, also faces trial, charged with having sexual intercourse and sodomy May 28 with the girl at the motel near Kellogg and Webb Road where police found them.
Both pleaded not guilty.
The girl said she had been advertised for escort services on the Internet over Neloms' computer, paid for by his credit card. She testified she made 20 to 30 trips to the motel to trade sex for money since she moved in with Neloms in March.
Neloms provided her the first stable home since she ran away from home after New Year's, she testified.
The girl said Neloms also paid for the motel rooms. Sometimes, she said Neloms would have his sisters drive her.
"Did you consider him your pimp?" prosecutor Marc Bennett asked.
"No," the girl said.
But the girl acknowledged that when one meeting went sour, she called Neloms to rescue her. Neloms' presence scared the other man off, she said.
She also gave money to Neloms "for gas and the motel room," she said.
Under cross-examination by the defense, the girl said she advertised herself as being 20 and Neloms didn't force her to sell herself.
Experts say teenage girls involved in trafficking rarely see themselves as victims, even though they aren't even old enough to legally consent to having sex.
During the past decade, Wichita's Anti-Sexual Exploitation Roundtable for Community Action has brought together police, prosecutors, social workers, health professionals and others together to investigate, intervene and help prevent local human trafficking.
It is changing the way the community is handling such cases.
Wichita has been identified by researchers as one of the few places in the country where officials counsel the teens and pursue criminal charges against those suspected of buying and selling them.
The FBI also has called Wichita one of the top originating cities for human trafficking — where those who prey on the youth come to exploit them.
Another group, ICT SOS, also emerged in recent months. The grassroots organization helps raise money and awareness to support the roundtable's efforts.
Gress and Neloms are the second pair of men accused in teen-trafficking cases since December.
Neloms, who remains in the Sedgwick County Jail in lieu of $250,000 bond, is tentatively set for trial Sept. 12.
The judge made an initial trial setting of Oct. 11 for Gress, who is free on $50,000 bond.
Before Wednesday's hearing, Bennett dropped charges of prostitution against the girl.
