DANVERS — Maria Trinidad "made it seem like she was going to help me," said the soft-spoken teenage girl.
Instead, Trinidad, who was living in a taxpayer-funded motel room on Route 1 in Danvers, tried to turn the 13-year-old into a prostitute.
"I felt helpless," said the girl, whose own family was scattered and not part of her life. "I felt like my mind and my body were being controlled by someone else ... to make money off me. ...
"I want to see her pay for what she did."
That price: two years in state prison, to be followed by three years of probation, the result of a plea agreement that Trinidad, 34, and her lawyer reached with a prosecutor who wanted to spare her young victim from going through a trial.
During a hearing in Salem Superior Court yesterday afternoon, Trinidad pleaded guilty to attempting to induce a child into prostitution and attempting to derive support from child prostitution.
Her son, Fernando Martins, 18, of Cambridge, pleaded guilty to a charge of attempting to induce a child into prostitution and was sentenced to six months in jail, which he will serve at the same time as a sentence in an unrelated firearms case.
It was Martins who, in June 2009, first met the girl, a runaway from a Department of Children and Families residential program, prosecutor Melissa Woodard said.
Martins, 17 at the time, knew the girl was 13, Woodard said. He also knew she needed money.
He told her that his mother was a "pimp" and offered to take the girl to meet Trinidad so she could make money, Woodard said.
The girl said she didn't want to go.
But that wasn't the end of it. A couple of days later, Martins invited her to go along with him and some other friends to Trinidad's home, a room at the Motel 6 in Danvers, for a party.
Eventually, Trinidad, who had a newborn baby in the room with her, persuaded the girl to stay, offering her food and a chance to go out and get some new clothes and a cell phone.
Trinidad also asked the girl if she would be willing to "do stuff with guys and get paid."
The girl said no. But that didn't dissuade Trinidad from approaching some men in a nearby room.
"I have a girl for you," Trinidad told the men, who had rented the room for a "guys night out," Woodard said.
When one of the men went to Trinidad's room and saw the girl, he immediately realized she was just a child. "How old are you?" he asked her. Then he told her that Trinidad had offered her up for money.
The girl didn't believe him, said Woodard. So he and his friends went to get their girlfriends, who tried to persuade the girl to leave with them. She wouldn't go.
Shortly afterward, one of the men gave Trinidad $70 and asked to spend time with the girl.
Trinidad told the girl she would get $150 if she went with the man. When the girl protested, Trinidad told her it was no big deal.
"The whole thing was just doing it for a couple of minutes and forgetting about it," Woodard quoted Trinidad as telling the girl.
The girl went with the men and their girlfriends, who took her back to her home.
The girl told Judge Timothy Feeley yesterday that Trinidad has never apologized for what she did.
Feeley gave Trinidad an opportunity to speak during yesterday's hearing.
Trinidad, wearing heavy eyeliner and lip gloss with her hair elaborately curled, declined.
Martins' lawyer, John Apruzzese, said the plea and sentences were the result of some 10 months of negotiations.
Martins had been free on bail and finished high school while awaiting trial, his lawyer said.
Trinidad has been held in custody since her arrest. She will have to serve about 10 months more before she is released on probation.
During that time, if she re-offends, she could receive up to five years in prison, Feeley ordered.
Both Trinidad and Martins will have to register as sex offenders when they are released.
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