OAKLAND — A man accused of trafficking a teen girl days after he was released from state prison for attempted pimping has been sentenced to six years and eight months behind bars, court records show,
Jordan Townsend, 28, pleaded no contest to pimping and to a burglary charge in a separate case from 2020, records show. He was sent to prison in June and remains incarcerated in Corcoran.
Townsend was arrested in 2025 and charged with trafficking the then-17-year-old, who he allegedly stayed in touch with while serving the attempted pimping sentence in Ironwood State Prison. In one call, he allegedly told her “I’m gonna get you,” when he got out, but the girl later told police she interpreted the remark to be “lighthearted.” Twelve days after being paroled, he allegedly found the girl and began trafficking her in Oakland.
At Townsend’s August 2025 preliminary hearing, the teen took the stand, answering “I don’t recall” 25 times and generally describing Townsend in positive terms. She came forward to police during a drug-induced haze after staying awake for two days, according to court records.
At the hearing’s end, a judge upheld the human trafficking count but said there wasn’t enough evidence to support the allegation that Townsend had used “force, fear, deceit, or violence” to victimize the girl.
In a sentencing memo, Townsend’s lawyer said that Townsend endured a “very challenging upbringing” and that the girl conceded to authorities she “worked for years as an independent prostitute in a variety of cities across California.” His client is “remorseful,” Deputy Public Defender Matthew Dalton added.
Oakland police said in court filings that the same girl was present with Townsend in San Diego — when she was 13 — in a vehicle with two adult sex workers. That led to the underlying attempted pimping charge and the four-year prison term, according to court records.