Cotati man gets six years in prison for pimping 16-year-old

A Cotati man was sentenced to six years in prison Thursday for pimping a 16-year-old girl who testified he and family members held her against her will with orders to earn them $100,000.

Abdelaziz Thomas, 39, also had sex with the girl, who said she was forced to sleep in his bedroom at the Charles Street house.

Another relative, April Dominique-Nysha Thomas, 20, is expected to be sentenced Monday to three years in prison for her role. Earlier this year, she pleaded no contest to pimping.

The girl, a Rancho Cotate High School student, testified at a preliminary hearing last year she was forced to trade sex for money over a two-month period.

She said she initially agreed to help April Thomas, a single mother she met in school, but was later threatened with physical harm if she didn’t achieve the financial goals. She testified another member of the Thomas family drove her to customers across the Bay Area and as far away as Medford, Ore., and Los Angeles.

Eventually, she said she became their “slave” and was ordered to clean Abdelaziz Thomas’ room when she wasn’t turning tricks or having sex with him.

One day, while he was attending a funeral, she went to police, she testified.

Abdelaziz Thomas was arrested on charges including human trafficking, which carries a life sentence. But the charges were tossed out after the girl revealed under cross-examination she had worked as a prostitute for other pimps.

He ultimately pleaded no contest to charges of pimping and statutory rape as part of a deal with prosecutors.

And another family member, Arthur Thomas, 21, was cleared of any charges.

Prosecutors said the family rented a room in the house to Mohannad Halaweh, 20, who was sentenced to nine years in prison in April for unrelated crimes. Halaweh racked up $130,000 in damages during a yearlong credit card fraud spree in which he rented an exotic sports car and two high-end vacation homes.

The girl testified she was forced to clean up after Halaweh, but he was otherwise not involved in forcing her into the sex trade.

You can reach Staff Writer Paul Payne at 568-5312 or paul.payne@pressdemocrat.com. ?On Twitter @ppayne.