The State Attorneys Office says Zakariya Clarke, 29, was sentenced to 25 years in prison for attempted murder and human trafficking. Clarke was accused of pimping multiple young women into prostitution, getting them addicted to drugs. Clarke pled guilty to the charges.
In January, Clarke was served a warrant out of Duval County, while he was in the Clay County jail for possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, burglary and attempted murder.
The details of his crimes are disturbing. According to an arrest report, Clark would beat his victims for disrespecting him, not following rules or attempting to escape. He would pimp them into prostitution and would force victims to use fentanyl to control them.
In May 2020, Clarke pretended to be a customer of one of the victims who tried to escape. The report states that he and another man brutally beat her and Clarke stabbed her in the back.
This was because she tried to leave and help another victim do the same. Clarke was positively ID’d on surveillance video from where the stabbing happened and from pictures.