Child sex trafficking raid shakes up quiet Wichita neighborhood

It was about time to wake up the kids for school when a loud boom shook awake a south Wichita neighborhood, signaling a complex, multi-agency investigation into alleged child sex trafficking.

Just after 7 a.m. Friday, Wichita police’s SWAT team raided a duplex at 2435 S. St. Clair, within walking distance of Woodman Elementary School and Truesdell Middle School in south Wichita, near Pawnee and Meridian. Later Friday, neighbors could see a gaping, jagged hole in a wooden privacy fence, apparently left by the police raiding the apartment. Some of the front porch windows had been smashed. The porch light fixture dangled.

Four people were taken into police custody at the duplex as part of a suspected child sex trafficking investigation, police said. Two were released after questioning.

In total, between late Thursday night and early Friday morning, six people were taken into police custody in the case, according to police. Two were later released.

Two men from the duplex were arrested and booked into jail Friday, police said.

A 37-year-old man was booked on five counts of rape, aggravated human trafficking and unlawful sale of narcotics, Wichita police Officer Charley Davidson said in a news release.

Jail records show that Stephen Ray James Jr. was booked into jail Friday on five counts of rape and one count of aggravated human trafficking. James has convictions dating to 1999 for aggravated battery, criminal possession of a firearm, drug possession and theft, state records show. His last prison sentence ended about two years ago.

A 19-year-old man was booked on two counts of possession of a firearm by a felon and aggravated human trafficking, according to the release.

Jail records show that Donnell Marquez James was booked into jail Friday on one count of aggravated human trafficking and two counts of possession of a firearm by a felon. Sedgwick County court documents show Donnell James is the son of Stephen James Jr.

“It’s a very complex investigation,” Davidson said. He said the FBI and Homeland Security are involved in the investigation. He said it started recently.

A 15-year-old girl, who is not from Wichita, provided information Thursday that led investigators to the duplex, Davidson said.

Davidson said the 15-year-old girl is a victim of child sex trafficking and was placed in police protective custody.

Clayton Wohlford Jr., a neighbor, said that in recent weeks there has been a noticeable increase in activity at the duplex that was raided.

“There has been a lot of traffic over there,” Wohlford said. “Always coming and going — two and three cars at a time.”

He said most of the people coming and going are men in their 20s and 30s and women of all ages.

Another neighbor, who asked to remain anonymous for safety reasons, described the duplex as “loud” in an otherwise quiet neighborhood.

“They come and go. They leave very fast,” the neighbor said. “10 minutes or less.”

Neither neighbor said they had seen children entering or exiting the duplex.

The night before the raid in south Wichita, a man and a woman were arrested in the northwest corner of the city as part of the same investigation.

They were booked into Sedgwick County Jail early Friday morning in the case, jail records show.

Kelly Wayne Holt, a 20-year-old woman, and James Deangelo Sexton, 25, were arrested between 9:30 and 10 p.m. on Thursday at a hotel at 10047 W. 29th St. North, a police report said. That’s where police made contact with the 15-year-old victim, Davidson said. It’s not clear why the arrests took place there.

Holt was booked on suspicion of aggravated human trafficking.

Sexton was booked on suspicion of aggravated human trafficking, possession of a controlled substance, possession of marijuana, a parole violation and criminal possession of a firearm. He was sentenced in 2013 for two counts of aggravated robbery in Sedgwick County, Kansas Department of Corrections records show.

Sexton is a parolee under high supervision by the parole system, state records show.

The Kansas Department of Corrections issued a warrant for Sexton on Wednesday.

He was last released from prison on Jan. 24 after being convicted of two counts of attempted aggravated robbery for crimes in November 2012 in Wichita, corrections records show.

Sexton’s primary address on the Kansas offender registry is listed as being in the 1700 block of South George Washington Drive.

In addition, the police announced the arrest of three women in the 400 block of south Webb for promoting the sale of sexual relations, police said.

This story was originally published August 24, 2018 at 4:41 PM.