2 men arrested in Las Vegas on battery, sex trafficking charges

Two men were arrested in July on domestic battery and sex trafficking charges in Las Vegas after punching their girlfriends, who both admitted to being prostitutes working for the men, according to police reports.

Wesley Cherry, 35, was charged with battery constituting domestic violence and sex trafficking an adult after police were called on July 21 to the apartment he shared with his girlfriend and two other women, according to an arrest report from the Metropolitan Police Department.

The girlfriend told police that Cherry had “hit her in the face and broke her phone” at about 6 p.m. after he grew angry she was texting an unknown person, police said.

She also told police Cherry “had forced her to work as a prostitute for the past five years and she wanted to get away from him.”

She admitted to traveling across the country with Cherry and allowing him to post online ads on her behalf. Cherry would also “handle her money for her,” police said.

If she did not work, she told police, “Cherry would become violent with her by choking her and slamming her on the ground.”

“It was just easier to place the ads online and go out and perform sexual acts for money than to deal with the beatings,” she told police.

Police said they had been dispatched to that apartment five times in the past three months for calls of domestic violence.

Cherry is being held on $10,000 bail and is scheduled to appear in court Wednesday morning.

Wayne May, 23, was arrested after a resident called police at 9 a.m. July 12 to report a female thought to be unconscious was now awake and screaming outside her condo, and a man was trying to move her inside, according to an arrest report.

The resident called police again shortly after to say the man was yelling at the female outside, and then took her inside their apartment and locked the door before driving away.

Officers pulled May over and arrested him after he refused to comply with at last three of the officers’ commands, police said.

The female suffered “extreme facial swelling and was bleeding from her mouth,” but she refused to speak to officer until May was in a police car.

She told police she had been dating May for a year and that she sometimes prostitutes herself for May. “Because if she does not he will ‘put her out’ and she has nowhere to go and knows no one in Las Vegas who will help her.”

Police confirmed the female had most recently been arrested for prostitution in November.

The victim told police she was unconscious outside their apartment because May “was angry with her and punched her in the face many times with a closed fist.” Police also believe at some point May pointed a firearm at her head and threatened her.

May was charged with two counts of first-degree kidnapping, domestic battery by strangulation, assault with a deadly weapon, two counts of sex trafficking an adult, battery resulting in substantial bodily harm and obstructing a police officer.

May is being held without bail and is scheduled to appear in court Aug. 12.

Contact Sabrina Schnur at sschnur@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0278. Follow @sabrina_schnur on Twitter.