CHICAGO — A federal judge has sentenced a Chicago man to 32 years in prison for arranging commercial sex encounters for a 16-year-old girl and related crimes.
Joseph Hazley, 35, posted the girl’s information in sexually explicit online advertisements, and arranged multiple meetings for her to engage in commercial sex. Hazley drove the girl to several meetings in the Chicago area in December 2016. One of the meetings occurred in the early morning hours of Christmas Eve, after a customer had responded to Hazley’s posting. Hazley drove the girl to Markham and waited in his car while the girl met with the customer in a nearby garage. During the encounter, the customer allegedly murdered the girl. Her throat was reportedly slit.
The suspected customer was subsequently arrested by the Chicago Police Department and charged with murder in Cook County Criminal Court.
A jury earlier this year convicted Hazley on federal sex trafficking charges. U.S. District Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman imposed the sentence Tuesday in federal court in Chicago.
