OAKLAND — A man twice convicted of human trafficking is back in jail, this time facing federal gun possession charges that carry a maximum 15-year prison term.
Adesola Kehinde, 37, was arrested last month for allegedly violating his probation and sex offender conditions by having a 17-year-old girl in his vehicle. But the gun police say they found in his glove compartment may spell more legal trouble for Kehinde.
Kehinde was already facing state charges of gun possession — as well as a probation violation — but this new case means he’ll likely remain in custody for months to come. On Friday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Kandis Westmore granted a prosecution motion to detain him while the case is pending, describing him in her handwritten notes as a registered sex offender “who has repeatedly engaged in conduct to subject minors to pimping/prostitution.”
The January arrest was the result of an investigation by authorities in Sacramento County and Alameda, where Kehinde was suspected of trafficking a teen. Police say they tracked the girl to his Alameda apartment on Buena Vista Avenue, arrested him on Jan. 9, searched his blue Tesla and found the gun. Thus far, he has not been charged with human trafficking, just with possession of the firearm as a felon.
In their motion to detain Kehinde, prosecutors detailed his two prior sex trafficking convictions, a pending Solano County case stemming from an undercover bust and Kehinde’s alleged efforts to evade prosecution. In one instance, prosecutors say, Kehinde “attempted to change his voice to sound like a woman” in a failed attempt to throw off a police investigator on the other side of his door.
His pending trafficking case in Solano County stemmed from an undercover operation. Authorities say he told an undercover police officer posing as a sex worker she’d have to pay $5,000 to have him as her pimp, and that he showed up to a Vacaville hotel to meet with her, then sped away as police closed in.
“Although it was nighttime, Kehinde kept his vehicle lights off and accelerated to roughly 75 miles per hour, weaving in and out of traffic,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonah Ross said in court papers. “Eventually, Kehinde collided with another motorist’s vehicle, causing injury to the driver and then exited his car and fled the scene before being arrested. A loaded Glock pistol was found where Kehinde exited his car.”
Kehinde was convicted of human trafficking in San Francisco in 2015, and again in Alameda County in 2022. The conviction stemmed from an incident in 2021 when a girl he was trafficking secretly texted a social worker that she was being held against her will. The girl later told authorities that she spent two weeks being trafficked around hotels in Oakland from an apartment in Alameda, during which time she was sexually abused by 140 people.
In the 2022 case, Kehinde was released from jail through a plea deal, but required to register as a sex offender.