The wife and stepdaughter of a Toledo pastor convicted of sexually assaulting a teenage girl who was set to testify against him last year were both sentenced to federal prison on Tuesday for trying to get the victim to recant her story.
Alisa Haynes, 45, the wife of Anthony Haynes, and his stepdaughter, Alexis Fortune, 25, appeared by video conference to be sentenced by visiting Judge Bernard Friedman. Both women agreed to proceed with the hearing by video rather than in person at U.S. District Court in Toledo due to the coronavirus.
Haynes was sentenced to an agreed upon 24 months in federal prison, while Fortune was sentenced to 48 months for their roles in having a victim in a multiple year sex-trafficking case leave a voice message on Haynes’ cell phone which contradicted her story to law enforcement.
“Ms. Fortune gave one of the victims a phone in order to leave not just one, but two voicemail messages recanting what the victim said to law enforcement officers about what happened in the underlying sex-trafficking case,” U.S. Assistant Attorney Ashley Futrell said on Tuesday. “Your honor, that was the goal and the purpose of this night.”
On Tuesday, Fortune asked Judge Friedman why she was being sentenced to 48 months when the guideline range suggested a 30 to 37 month sentence for the sole offense of tampering with a witness or victim. She was originally charged with false statement or representation made to a department or agency of the United States and using, carrying, and brandishing a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence.
Through a plea agreement, 48 months was a negotiated sentence as federal prosecutors said her initial charges would have led to significant time behind bars. The firearm offense alone carried a minimum of seven years in federal prison, said U.S. Assistant Attorney Michael Freeman.
Haynes and Fortune previously pleaded guilty in November to tampering with a witness or victim for going to the girl’s apartment on Jan. 4, 2019, which led to several hours of them and the victim’s minor sister driving around Toledo.
Fortune admitted to giving the victim a cell phone to leave a voice mail to recant the story, but she denied any involvement in sexual exploitation of the victims or brandishing a weapon, her attorney Sanford Schulman said in a sentencing memorandum filed in U.S. District Court in Toledo.
Haynes admitted that she intended to turn the message over to her husband’s attorneys ahead of his upcoming trial, court records show.
Haynes told the judge two of her children are in the custody of family members and she’s working to get home to them. Her attorney, Chuck Boss, said his client is a “good mother,” whose life took a serious wrong turn.
“I’m trying to manage what I have left and this has truly been a lesson learned,” she said. “I apologize to you and the court and everyone involved. I would like to move forward and become the mother and grandmother and the citizen that I am to be in this world and help others like I was supposed to.”
Anthony Haynes, along with pastors Cordell Jenkins and Kenneth Butler, were involved in a multiple year sex-trafficking ring with the victim, who was 14 at the time.
The victim at the heart of the case, Taniece Temple, previously spoke about what she endured over those years with The Blade and she also spoke about her case nationally on the Tamron Hall Show. Today, she runs her own nonprofit organization, Pretty, Loved, and Destined, that offers support for women in a variety of areas, but with an emphasis on help for those who may have been sexually abused.
Anthony Haynes and Jenkins received life sentences, while Butler was sentenced to an agreed-upon 17½ years in prison.
Additionally, Jenkins’ ex-wife, Laura Lloyd, pleaded guilty for her role in the scheme for lying to federal investigators regarding her knowledge of her former husband’s involvement. The former Lucas County administrator was sentenced to 21 months in federal prison in February, 2019.
First Published May 19, 2020, 4:23 p.m.
