Man gets life in human trafficking case

SAN ANTONIO – A man found guilty of human trafficking will now spend the rest of his life in prison.

Frank Lara, 41, was sentenced to life in prison Friday.

"Frank Lara is a habitual criminal who took advantage of children that walked into his life," said Kirsta Leeburg Melton of the Bexar County D.A.'s Office, Human Trafficking Unit. "Children who were in rough circumstances in their homes and their lives."

The Crimes Against Children Task Force tracked down Lara in October 2012 through an Internet ad selling underage children for sex.

Investigating officers had discovered two young girls ages, one 13-year-old and one 16-year-old, who prosecutors said Lara was selling on the street.

The girls told officers that Lara was the one who was advertising them and taking their money.

"At this point, we're working with both girls to try and have them in positions where they can go through healing, where they can go through rehabilitation, where they can start their lives again," Melton said.

Melton said Lara had already been in prison on three different occasions and that while he was under house arrest as part of his latest parole, he was conducting the trafficking business through his phone from his mother's home.

Lara was convicted on four counts of human trafficking and compelling prostitution of a child.

"They both boil down to modern day slavery and selling people. That's what Frank Lara did and he did it while on parole," Melton said. "He had been given opportunities to change, to make a different life and what we saw was that he continued to dwell in crime."