Human Trafficking

LANCASTER (CNS) – A Lancaster man is facing 26 years in prison as a result of his plea to attempted murder and human trafficking charges involving the mother of a kidnapped toddler who was strapped into a car seat and left in a shed in Palmdale. Brandon Michael Wynn, 34, pleaded no contest late Wednesday to two counts each of human trafficking and pimping involving the tot\’s mother and another woman, and four counts, including attempted murder and assault by means likely to produce great bodily injury, involving the girl\’s mother, according to the District Attorney\’s Office. He is set to be sentenced Feb. 4 at the Lancaster courthouse. Other charges, including kidnapping and child abuse counts involving the toddler, are expected to be dismissed then. Wynn\’s co-defendant, Regina Renee Estorga, 45, pleaded no contest to one count each of kidnapping involving the girl\’s mother and assault with a deadly weapon. Estorga — who was not charged with the child\’s abduction — is facing six years in state prison, with her sentencing also set next month.

Last July 16, Wynn assaulted one of the women he had forced into prostitution, according to Deputy District Attorney Dennis Vincent. Two days later, Wynn and Estorga took the woman to a remote area in the desert, where they beat her, doused her with bleach and left her naked and tied up, the prosecutor said. The woman was subsequently found in the Lake Los Angeles area. After an Amber Alert was issued for the woman\’s 18-month-old daughter, Wynn took the girl to a shed in Palmdale and left her there, according to the prosecutor. Following an extensive search, Wynn was eventually spotted July 18 in a car. He told sheriff\’s deputies that the toddler was nearby in the shed, and two sheriff\’s sergeants and a deputy rushed to the scene, where they found the child. The girl was suffering from heat exposure and dehydration and was still strapped into a car seat, according to the sheriff\’s department. Sheriff\’s investigators said that had the weather in the Antelope Valley been more typical, the child could have died. An unseasonal rainstorm lessened the effects of the heat. Wynn has been jailed since his arrest last summer. Estorga was arrested nearly a week after Wynn and has remained behind bars since then.