Denver man sentenced to 448 years in prison for human trafficking – believed to be longest sentence in state history for such crimes

A Denver man received what is believed to be the longest sentence in Colorado history Thursday for human trafficking convictions.

Judge Kandace Gerdes handed down a 448-year prison sentence to Robert Hawkins on Tuesday after he was found guilty of 18 counts, including five of human trafficking, in Denver District Court. Victims and their family members read the statements before sentencing.

After the sentencing hearing, Juror #8 said the evidence made it easy to reach a guilty verdict.

“The prosecution did a great job of presenting really strong evidence, and there were some questions, and again, we took it very seriously,” said the juror, who declined to give his opinion. name. “We looked at a lot of information, a lot of evidence, but it was pretty obvious what was happening. »

A jury found Hawkins guilty after a month-long trial in March. The three cases involved four women, two young girls and an adult man over several years. One of the minors became an adult during the trial. All the victims testified against the 44-year-old man.

“I hope that today's sentence sends the message that human trafficking will not be tolerated in this community and will be aggressively prosecuted,” said Beth McCann, District Attorney Denver. “Robert Hawkins, like most human traffickers, showed no respect for anyone but himself, took advantage of six extremely vulnerable victims, and he will now pay a high price for his crimes. “

Hawkins hit the radar of the Denver District Attorney's Office after an adult survivor came forward to the Denver Police Department. Chief Deputy District Attorney Lara Mullin said building a case is a difficult time. She said one survivor had long since left Hawkins. But he continued to exploit others. The FBI and Denver police had opened similar investigations into Hawkins involving the two juveniles.

“Ultimately what we realized is that it's all kind of connected – in the process of putting this together and starting to really look at what Robert Hawkins has done over the years.” , Mullin said. “We then identified another victim who had been involved in an incident in which Robert Hawkins had actually shot a sex buyer after dropping her off on Colfax Avenue. And at the time this case came up, we didn't realize that human trafficking was happening.

Hawkins will serve the sentences for each of the cases consecutively.