California Man Sentenced to 5 Years for Trafficking 14-Year-Old in LA County
Brandon Holguin, 26, was sentenced to five years in prison for forcing a drugged teen to sort clothes for online resale before abandoning him on a freeway.
California Man Gets Five Years for Drugging Teen, Forcing Him to Work All Night
Brandon Holguin, 26, was sentenced to five years in state prison this week after pleading no contest to human trafficking for labor, child abuse likely to cause great bodily injury or death, and furnishing a controlled substance to a minor, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office announced. Law & Crime reported that Holguin was also ordered to pay $4,300 in restitution for "depriving the victim of his possessions."
The case centers on a 14-year-old middle school student whom Holguin first targeted at a thrift store several months before the trafficking began on May 2, 2025.
Motel, Hundreds of Clothing Items, and Adderall
With the boy in tow, Holguin drove to a motel in Los Angeles County, where he set the teen to work sorting and photographing used clothing items for online resale. The task was extensive — cataloging hundreds of garments stretched well into the night. Holguin's response, according to prosecutors, was to instruct the victim to ingest Adderall, an amphetamine, so he could keep working. The substance made the boy sick.
From the outset, Holguin kept the minor's cellphone in his own possession, cutting off contact with the boy's family. He later told the teen the phone needed to be discarded so the victim "could not be tracked by his mother." Holguin then sold the device and used a fake ID to pawn the boy's jewelry, pocketing several hundred dollars in the process.
Abandoned on a Los Angeles Freeway
Authorities said Holguin had intended to traffic the boy hundreds of miles north into Northern California. When that plan fell through, he left the minor "alone on the side of a Los Angeles freeway in the middle of the night" on May 5, 2025, driving away with the proceeds from the sale of the victim's phone and jewelry, the district attorney's office said.
The teenager made it off the freeway and found shelter at a nearby business, where staff called 911. The LAPD reunited him with his family later that same day.
Holguin was arrested on May 9, 2025. The case moved through the courts over several months: he was arraigned, initially pleaded not guilty, and prosecutors subsequently filed additional charges in a criminal information before he entered his no contest plea.
DA Calls It Labor Trafficking of a Child
Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan J. Hochman addressed the case directly. "Human trafficking often includes a predator luring a vulnerable child into illegal labor exploitation, as in this case," Hochman said in a statement.
He added: "The defendant, Brandon Holguin, will spend years in prison for his despicable acts of labor trafficking a child, making the child take an amphetamine so he could work all night and cutting off all communications with his family."
The incidents occurred at a motel and other locations in Los Angeles County during May 2025, with Holguin's initial contact with the victim traced back to a thrift store visit several months earlier.
Source: Law & Crime