BEHIND BARS | Alleged Diamond Kitties' human trafficker pens letter to judge
Kenndric Roberts detailed multiple moves across the south, losing his father when he was 2, and the challenges he faced with drugs—blaming his emotions and need for acceptance for why he is now the adult accused of human trafficking.
ATLANTA, Ga. – An accused human trafficker admits to the judge that he is guilty… of the seven deadly sins.
It’s the first time Kenndric Roberts has told his side of the story.
Five months after a 911 call came in from his Sandy Springs, Ga., rental mansion from one of his alleged victims, known as his Diamond Kitties, Roberts wrote a letter to Judge Todd Markle detailing his childhood and growing up in a tiny town, not unlike Mayberry.
He currently faces 15 charges stemming from human trafficking and false imprisonment accusations by multiple women, including six counts of false imprisonment, six counts of trafficking person for labor or servitude and two counts of possession of a firearm in the commission of a felony. An AK-47 pistol and a Glock .45 cal. handgun were recovered during the investigation.
In a letter filed on Aug. 7, 2017, the self-proclaimed star athlete detailed multiple moves across the South, losing his father when he was 2, and the challenges he faced with drugs—blaming his emotions and need for acceptance for why he is now the adult accused of human trafficking.
“My father passed at age two no father figures, which mentally and emotionally affected me.”
Furthermore, blaming his low-income childhood, filled with drugs, alcohol and the desire for “nice things” to when the “seeds of influence” were planted.
“I’ve been living emotion over intelligence,” wrote the once-Clark Atlanta University business management and marketing student. “I sought to be somebody important, I worked several jobs, experimented with drugs for social acceptance and chased females.”
In his letter, he cites the seven deadly sins as what he is guilty of, but not where he wants to be.
“I’ve fell to anger, slothness, [sic] gluttony, envy, greed, ignorance, lust and pride where now I’m focused on being drug free and replacing traits above with honesty, courage, integrity, chastity, [sic] charity, humility, patience and kindness.”
With that being, he concedes to the court for their assistance with treatment.
According to the documents Roberts attached to his letter, he has been part of a pre-stabilization program at the Fulton County Jail since June, focusing on his treatment for alcohol and substance abuse, and directly addressing anti-social behavior, criminal thinking and addiction.
“I am currently enrolled in the pre-stabilization drug and alcohol program Fulton County Jail dealing with my drug addictions and manipulative behaviors, that I’ve been struggling with since my freshman year of college,” Roberts wrote in the letter, signing off with “self-awareness and hope.”
READ | Full letter below
A Fulton County grand jury indicted the human trafficking suspect on March 24 on all charges that a judge dismissed one day prior.
Based on probable cause, Judge Jaslovelin "Jessy" Lall dismissed four of the six counts of false imprisonment and all human trafficking charges against Roberts, during his arraignment and preliminary hearing. A grand jury, however, decided the following day, to indict him on those charges, as well as a criminal street activity charge.
“What this means now is these charges that were alleged against him by the police have been formalized against him by the grand jury,” Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard said in March.
In court five months ago, Roberts sat quietly at the defense table, wearing a navy-blue Fulton County jail jumpsuit, handcuffed and shackled to a chain around his waist, gripping tightly to a maroon Bible--his tattoos scrolled across his hands, matching those of his "Diamond Kitties."
“The judgment of this bizarre contract is something that the state can try to get indicted and try to construe this as a trafficking case, or whether Mr. Roberts and Mr. Maloof will be tied up in civil court, trying to argue whether this particular contract in this bizarre fashion was entered into under some kind of duress or unconscionable issues," Lall said.
“I don’t know whether I’ve been listening to a civil case regarding breach of contract or a criminal case involving trafficking, false imprisonment and so forth—but, clearly at the present time, based on the information that was presented, I find probable cause for the charge of false imprisonment for two of the alleged victims in the case, as well as possession of the firearms charge—dismissing the other charges,” Lall said.
Lall ordered Roberts to no firearms and not to make contact with the two women named in case, as well as an $80,000 bond—$20,000 on firearm possession charge and $30,000 for each of the two false imprisonment charges.
But he did not post bail and the grand jury issued him no bond in their judgment.
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A detective on the case testified that when police arrived at the Sandy Springs mansion on March 7, the woman who answered the door said, "Help me."
The case started when one of Roberts’ Diamond Kitties, a 20-year-old mother who feared for her life, called 911, earlier back in March, alleging that the then-33-year-old was holding her and seven other women captive inside a lavish, sprawling mansion at 100 Strauss Lane in Sandy Springs, Ga.
"It's a house of full of girls and... if I try to leave, he’ll try to kill me," the woman told the 911 dispatcher on March 7 just after 7:31 a.m.
The detective described, for the judge, his interview with that woman.
"She was recruited, enticed and harbored by the defendant for the purpose of labor servitude,” the detective, whose identity is being withheld because he works undercover, testified. “She expressed that the defendant threatened to kill her if she left.”
Roberts' attorney, Michael Maloof, argued that Roberts has a permit to have gun and never forced anyone to do anything.
“Everyone was free to leave at any time. No one was threatened or forced. And everybody stayed… and they lived well. That’s not trafficking,” he said to the judge.
“It’s absurd. I ask your honor to dismiss everything.”
The woman on the 911 call, told the dispatcher that she met Roberts, whom she referred to as her "boss," on a dating website that caters to “sugar daddies” seeking “sugar babies.”
Dispatcher: OK, and how did you meet him?
Caller: On this website. It’s called Seeking Arrangements.
Dispatcher: OK, if you said that there’s nothing illegal going on and you’re not allowed to
leave…
Caller: Mmm hmm… No, there are times where you can leave whenever you want. But (unintelligible)… and then he’ll like threaten to kill you and stuff.
According to another Diamond Kitty, Roberts, known to his gang, Gangster Disciple, as “King Lop,” promised them lucrative careers with his entertainment company.
“[He offered] a modeling career. I was so interested because that’s what I want to do,” one of the girls remembered.
She moved into an apartment with four other girls and Roberts in August, and within a week, she said, she signed a contract that stipulated that she would dance at a strip club to live there.
“I didn’t know it was going to get worse,” said the 19-year-old woman, who we are not naming because she is considered a victim in the case that’s under investigation by the FBI.
But, according to her, it did.
She agreed to audition for the Pink Pony and started working there almost immediately, joining three other women she lived with.
The other women living with Roberts, she said, were sent to work at the Pink Pony, Mardi Gras, Oasis, nearby strip clubs, as dancers. They too were recruited through the dating website, as well as through his company, Live Star Nation’s Instagram page and other strip clubs.
“It was very different,” she said about working in the strip club. “It was crazy. I’d never experienced anything like that in my life.”
But, she continued, she got used to it. It was the norm. Everyone in the house danced.
She never saw any of the money she earned. Every dime, she said, went to him—nearly $1,000 a night, from six to seven nights a week.
“I think I put almost $100,000 in that man’s pocket.”
The women said Roberts asked them to work at strip clubs to help get the company off the ground then coerced them into giving him their earnings each night, and threatened to kill them and their families if they left. In some cases, the women alleged that Roberts obtained fancy cars using their names and credit.
On Thursday, the detective testified that Roberts fined women who broke his rules.
"He also had, mixed in with the receipts, fines for four of the women totaling [more than] $100,000 for insubordination over a three-day period," the detective said. "He would fine them for insubordination for $10,000 to $20,000."
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To show solidarity, she and the other women in his home received matching tattoos on their wrists—also pledging allegiance and homage to the gang that Roberts is affiliated with, the Gangster Disciples.
“He made us get tattoos,” one of his former Diamond Kitties said, not wanting to get the ink.
The tattoos included the letters, “LOP,” which stood for “Loyalty Over Pride,” at the top of their
wrist, with the numbers “12 15 16 14” below, matching the tattoo on his chest, “12 L 15 O 16 P 14.”
“He wanted us to put our pride aside and be loyal to him,” she said.
Other women in the house had a second tattoo on their other wrist with the letters, “SOS,” referring to the gang affiliation again and the abbreviation for “Sisters of Struggle.” They knew more about Roberts, she said. They were on the “inside.”
Identical tattoos weren't the only thing the women shared.
“He wanted us to be like sister-wives,” she said of the other women, all of whom had sex with Roberts. She said she was forced to.
And the eight women living in the house were seemingly interchangeable.
“I felt like a robot living in that house,” she said. “I was just a little puppet.”
He dressed them alike. He chose their underwear. He chose their makeup. He chose their hair products and how they did their hair.
“That was my life, wearing the same things, the same purses the same glasses, hair everything was the same, even the bras and panties were the same.”
He randomly took their phones, searching for anything and everything that he didn’t approve of.
“I couldn’t have a social life. I couldn’t have any friends.”
She was only allowed to leave the house for the club, grocery shopping or to get her nails done; and kept cameras rolling inside and outside the house to keep a close eye on everything that happened.
“He wasn’t physical, just mentally screwed our heads up,” she said.
She remembered, he used to tear the women down, saying, “You’re not good enough; you’re not smart enough.” And telling them they could leave, but then, in a swift 180, making threats on their lives and their families’ lives.
“He said, ‘You can leave if you want… [but] I’ll screw your life up,’” she said of his threats that he would hurt her family, plant drugs on her, reminding her that he knew where her mom lived.
“We couldn’t leave,” she said.
When police arrived at the Sandy Springs mansion on March 7, they found eight women—at least six being held against their will. With the assistance of the FBI, Sandy Springs Police arrested Roberts.
If convicted, Roberts faces up to 205 years in prison.