Man, woman face charges in alleged sex trafficking at Las Vegas hotel

A man and a woman are facing charges of kidnapping, sex trafficking and child abuse after a female minor was allegedly held against her will for prostitution in a hotel room at The Strat.

Mark Johnson, 23, and Donnesha Ellis, 21, were handcuffed and walked out of the hotel-casino at 9 a.m. on Dec. 20, several hours after the Metropolitan Police Department received a call about a girl forced to remain at a guest room registered to Johnson, police said in an arrest report.

Metro vice detectives interviewed the juvenile, who said she had been at The Strat for about four days staying with Johnson and Ellis, police said.

The girl consented to have detectives search her mobile phone, where they located multiple text messages between her and Johnson that “had discussions about money that was made from (the girl) during the prostitution related dates she did,” according to the report.

One of Johnson’s messages read: “Why haven’t you got any plays today?” — a message that police said was an attempt to motivate her into going on dates to solicit sex for money.

On the phone, detectives found a “CashApp” that reported the girl sent money to Johnson and more text messages with another phone number listed as “Bluu” that, according to a contact list, turned out to be Johnson’s girlfriend, Alissa Isles, 19, the arrest document said.

The text exchange included several prostitution-related communications, with Isles suggesting that they separate so as not to be observed by law enforcement and advising the girl and a second female juvenile to go to “Trop,” meaning a section of West Tropicana Avenue where prostitution is prevalent, the report said.

One message from Isles instructed the girl and the second juvenile to certain locations there but “to be careful of undercover officers in the area,” p0lice said in the report.

Police also uncovered text messages pertaining to prostitution from a person called “TT” who was identified as Ellis, who instructed, “Yes, you still need to bring back something, or don’t come back,” police reported.

The girl told police she met Johnson and Isles through a mutual friend and that she had been in prostitution only over several days, during which she earned $1,270 from sex acts and gave half the money to Johnson, the report stated.

Johnson, Ellis and Isles were arrested, but the district attorney had not submitted a case against Isles as of Tuesday, according to Justice Court records.

Johnson and Ellis are facing two counts of sex trafficking of a minor under 18, two counts of first-degree kidnapping of a minor, two counts of child abuse or neglect and one count of conspiracy to commit sex trafficking. They are scheduled to appear in court on Wednesday, court records show.

Contact Jeff Burbank at jburbank@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0382. Follow him @JeffBurbank2 on X.