QUEENS MAN SENTENCED TO THREE TO NINE YEARS IN PRISON FOR SEX TRAFFICKING

Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced that Leighton Jennings was sentenced to three to nine years in prison after pleading guilty to sex trafficking a 25-year-old woman. The defendant admitted that he intentionally advanced or profited from prostitution by making materially false statements or omissions to induce the woman to continue to engage in prostitution. Jennings told the woman he would provide her housing, supplies for her infant, job training and other necessities in exchange for her proceeds from prostitution.

District Attorney Katz said: “This defendant promised to give a young woman a safety net but instead profited from her engaging in prostitution. Thank you to the brave victim for coming forward allowing us to hold the defendant accountable. If you need assistance, or know of someone who may have been trafficked, call the Human Trafficking Bureau in my office at 718-286-6548.” 

Jennings, 36, of Jamaica, pleaded guilty to sex trafficking on the eve of his trial last month. Queens Supreme Court Justice Peter F. Vallone Jr. sentenced him yesterday to three to nine years in prison and registration as a sex offender upon his release.

DA Katz said that, according to the charges and investigation, the defendant met the 25-year-old victim in July 2024 at what is known as the Penn Track in Brooklyn where she was engaging in prostitution and living in a temporary shelter. Jennings promised to provide her with housing, necessities and childcare for the woman’s baby, and made other representations in exchange for the victim’s financial proceeds from engaging in prostitution. The victim agreed and was to surrender $500 to $1,000 each day to Jennings, in cash and by way of electronic transfers.  

Instead of securing an apartment, as promised, the defendant moved the victim into an apartment he shared with a disabled adult in the Pomonok Houses and later refused to allow the victim’s infant to live with them.

The defendant took all the financial proceeds the woman made while engaging in prostitution at a Queens hotel between March and May 2025 and the Penn Track between July 2024 and May 2025.

Jennings was arrested on a strangulation charge on July 11, 2025, after the victim filed a police report.

Following an investigation by the District Attorney’s Human Trafficking Bureau and the NYPD/FBI Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force, Jennings was indicted on sex trafficking and other related charges in December 2025.

Senior Assistant District Attorney Kiran Cheema, of the District Attorney’s Career Criminal Major Crimes Bureau, and Assistant District Attorney Felicia Thomas, of the Human Trafficking Bureau, prosecuted the case under the supervision of Assistant District Attorneys Jessica Melton, Human Trafficking Bureau Chief, and Marilyn Filingeri, Assistant Deputy Bureau Chief, and under the overall supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney for the Special Prosecutions Division Jared R. Rosenblatt.