Child Sex Trafficker and Armed Robber Sentenced to Decades in Federal Prison
Miami, Florida – A federal district judge in Miami last week sentenced 35-year-old Christopher Grant Proby to 30 years in prison for sex trafficking a minor and for participating in the armed robbery of a Riviera Beach plumber.
In December 2017, Proby initiated a social media conversation with a 14-year-old girl. Proby asked about the minor’s sexual experience and said that he wanted to have sex with her. In late January 2018, the girl ran away from her foster home to meet with Proby in Riviera Beach. They engaged in sexual activity.
In June 2018, Proby used on-line social media to advertise the girl for commercial sex. When men responded to the advertisement requesting to have sex with the minor, Proby communicated with them by text message to arrange a price, meeting location, and specify the sex acts that the minor would perform. Proby drove the minor to meet with these men to engage in commercial sex acts, and took any money that she earned.
On July 11, 2018, Proby and his codefendants, Jamal Lamar Head and Keon Travy Glanton, worked together to rob a Roto-Rooter plumber of valuable plumbing equipment in Riviera Beach, Florida. Head, Proby, and Glanton directed the minor to place a service all to Roto-Rooter. At their direction, the minor lured the Roto-Rooter plumber to an abandoned residence in Riviera Beach, where Head assaulted him with a firearm. Proby and Glanton took valuable plumbing equipment from the vehicle while Head held the victim at gunpoint.
Head and Glanton were previously sentenced to 60 and 33 years in prison, respectively, for the armed robbery of the Riviera Beach plumber, as well as for other crimes, including the murder of a different plumber from Miami.
U.S. District Judge Roy K. Altman imposed the sentences.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse, launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by the U.S. Attorney’s Offices and the Criminal Divisions Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.
Juan Antonio Gonzalez, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida; Christopher Robinson, Acting Special Agent in Charge, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), Miami Field Office; and George L. Piro, Special Agent in Charge, FBI Miami made the announcement.
This case was investigated by ATF Miami, the FBI’s Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force, and Miami Dade Police Department. The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office and Riviera Beach Police Department assisted. This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Daniel J. Marcet and Jessica Kahn Obenauf. AUSA Richard Brown is handling asset forfeiture.
To report suspected human trafficking or to obtain resources for victims, please call 1-888-373-7888; text “BeFree” (233733), or live chat at HumanTraffickingHotline.org. The toll-free phone, SMS text lines, and online chat function are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Help is available in English, Spanish, Creole, or in more than 200 additional languages. The National Hotline is not managed by law enforcement, immigration or an investigative agency. Correspondence with the National Hotline is confidential and you may request assistance or report a tip anonymously.
To learn more about the National Resource Hotline visit www.humantraffickinghotline.org. To learn more about the U.S. Department of Justice’s efforts to combat human trafficking visit www.justice.gov/humantrafficking.
Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or at http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov, under case number 19-cr-20063.
