OAKLAND — In the latest case of violence resulting from the city’s underground sex market, two people are charged with robbing a man who allegedly hired one of the defendants as a prostitute, court records show.
Luis Silva, 24, and Monica Trujillo-Ramirez, 29, were charged with one felony count of second-degree robbery.
Prosecutors also charged Trujillo-Ramirez with two misdemeanor counts of solicitation, court records show. The charges were filed on July 9, eight days after a man reported being robbed by a woman he picked up in an Oakland neighborhood known for prostitution.
The victim claimed he picked up a woman — later identified as Trujillo-Ramirez from International Boulevard and brought her to a Motel 6. There, a man robbed the victim at gunpoint for $300 and car keys, police said.
Trujillo-Ramirez had been detained in a prior undercover prostitution sting, police said. Silva was identified as a suspect because the hotel room was booked in his father’s name, though Silva’s dad wasn’t charged, according to court records.
The incident is only the most recent case involving robbery set ups that began as prostitution transactions in Oakland’s “blade,” an area around International Boulevard known for open air prostitution. Other examples include a couple who robbed and maced at man at an Oakland motel after he allegedly picked her up from the same neighborhood, and a group charged with robbing a man who picked up a prostitute and brought her to a hotel, only for her to allegedly call the robbers from the bathroom.
Last year, four men and an alleged sex worker from Mississippi were charged with burglarizing a hotel and robbing a man who was shot during the ordeal. All of them have taken plea deals for sentences ranging from two years of probation to two years in prison, except one, who jumped bail after accepting a pea deal and has a warrant for his arrest, court records show.