BILLINGS – A Missoula man with a state prostitution conviction is on trial in federal court in Billings for sex trafficking by force.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Cyndee Peterson said Monday that 35-year-old Terrance Tyrell Edwards had a pattern of meeting women who needed money or with whom he initially had a romantic relationship and then forcing them into prostitution.
Police in Billings started looking for Edwards in September 2016 after a Polson woman called her mother to say she had been held against her will for 11 days.
He was arrested when he returned to Montana with three teens he had recruited from North Dakota and Minnesota.
Edwards’ attorney told jurors that Edwards would testify that he was running a legal escort service and that if the women were having sex with clients they were doing it for extra money.