A Collin County grand jury indicted a Richardson man on several child sex charges this week.

Sheldon Vonshey Evans, a 38-year-old originally from Atlanta, Georgia, has been charged with trafficking of a child, aggravated kidnapping, and indecency with a child by sexual contact, a news release from District Attorney Greg Willis announced Wednesday.

If found guilty of at least one of the first two charges, which are felonies in the first degree, Evans could face life in prison. Indecency with a child by sexual contact is a second-degree felony offense punishable by up to 20 years.

The Richardson Police Department opened an investigation into Evans after the alleged victim’s mother informed them that he had her daughter in December 2022. The 16-year-old had allegedly met Evans in Atlanta, and he later reportedly arranged for her to fly to Dallas-Fort Worth Airport.

Taking her home with him to Richardson, Evans allegedly sexually assaulted the teen and began preparing to sell her off to others. According to the DA’s office, he bought the girl lingerie to make her look older “so she could make money” and instructed her to call him “Skinny Pimp” or “Daddy.”

The teen contacted her mother when she “began to fear for her safety,” and Richardson police tracked her down, taking Evans into custody.

“Sex trafficking will not be tolerated in our community, and I’d like to thank the Richardson Police Department for their rapid response and rescue of this child,” said Willis.

As a clandestine activity in which the victims are often frequently moved around to avoid detection, it is difficult to fully grasp the scale of human trafficking in North Texas. Awareness-building initiatives on both the national and statewide levels have helped shine a light on this activity.

However, trafficking victims tend to be among the most vulnerable in society. For instance, as covered in The Dallas Express, this April, a Texas high school teacher was accused of compelling three of her students, all minors and runaways, to perform sexual services for a place to stay.

Identifying potential sex trafficking victims and getting them the help they need is a critical part of stamping out this criminal activity, but the Dallas Police Department’s officer shortage has hindered those efforts, as highlighted in a recent webinar hosted by the Health and Human Services Commission’s Human Trafficking Resource Center.

Although a City report previously called for 4,000 officers to ensure public safety in Dallas, DPD fields only around 3,000. DPD’s budget is $654 million this fiscal year, considerably less than the spending levels seen on police in other major cities with high crime rates, including Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York City.

Nevertheless, DPD has been turning its attention to the illicit sex trade, especially with northwestern Dallas becoming ground zero for this activity.

Last year, arrests for prostitution grew by 154% compared to 2022, according to data from the City’s crime analytics dashboard. As of June 5, the number of prostitution-related offenses logged remained more or less the same, but the number of busts for purchasing prostitution has nearly tripled.

As covered in The Dallas Express, DPD has been increasingly running operations targeting those soliciting sex, whose demand helps drive sex trafficking. In Dallas proper, just 37 human trafficking cases have been logged this year. This is, nonetheless, a 76.2% increase from 2023.