OMAHA, Neb. -- A woman from Seward received 15 years in prison for her role in a conspiracy to sex traffic minors.

Acting U.S. Attorney Steven Russell said 28-year-old Sidney Marker, of Seward, was sentenced Monday in for a conspiracy to sex traffic minors in Omaha's federal court. Marker will serve to 180 months in prison and then another five years of supervised release once she is finished with her initial sentence. She will be required to register as a sex offender as well. There is no parole in the federal prison system. 

According to court documents, co-defendants 42-year-old Carney Turner and 20-year-old Julisha Biggs, both of Omaha, were sentenced on Nov. 8. Turner was sentenced to life in prison on one count of conspiracy to sex traffic minors, three counts of sex trafficking of a minor, and two counts of enticement of a minor while Biggs was sentenced to 87 months in prison for her role in the conspiracy.

Authorities said they discovered electronic messages between a minor female and Turner during a separate sex trafficking investigation and began their investigation September 2020. The minor female was interviewed and reported that she had been sex trafficked by Turner for approximately three months and that Turner had kept money from the sex sales.

Officials said a second minor female reported in October 2020 that she had been sexually assaulted by a man in a hotel room after Turner brought her to the hotel and paid her to meet with the man. A third minor female was reported missing from her foster home in November 2020 and officers saw that she was being posted in online sex advertisements by a phone number reportedly associated with Turner.

According to court documents, officers found evidence showed Marker had met Turner while he was serving a state sentence and Marker was employed in the correctional facility as a caseworker. Marker then went on to work as a foster care specialist and a family support specialist. When Turner was released from prison, he, Marker, and Biggs lived together in an apartment in Ralston.

Officials said between January 2020 and February 2021, Turner recruited, advertised, and arranged commercial sex sales for minors. The sex sales took place at hotels in and around Omaha, as well as at the apartment, which had been leased by Marker. At least one of the minors also stayed at the apartment for a period of time. Marker had vehicles to take the minors to hotels for commercial sex acts and helped with renting hotel rooms. The minor who had been reported missing in November 2020 had been recruited by Biggs to come work for Turner.

This case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations, the Omaha Police Department, and the Nebraska Attorney General’s Office.