A Montgomery woman has been sentenced to 10 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to the charge of sex trafficking a minor.

Laporchie Howard, 27, was sentenced on Dec. 15, Middle District of Alabama Acting U.S. Attorney Jonathan S. Ross announced Monday. In addition to the 10-year sentence, Howard must serve five years of supervised release following her sentence completion.

According to her plea agreement and other court records, in early 2017, Howard lived with two co-defendants — D’Vonte Lockley and Tracey Shannon — in an apartment located in Montgomery.

Sometime before May 4, 2017, a female runaway under the age of 18 and an adult female were invited to live with Howard at her apartment.

In her plea agreement, Howard acknowledged that she and her co-defendants knew that one of their new roommates was a minor.

In return for food and housing, the two new residents engaged in commercial sex at a Montgomery hotel, and Howard received the proceeds.

Authorities said Howard sent various text messages to the other four residents and to customers directing some of the criminal activities. She also set the prices of the commercial sex acts.

With some of the proceeds, Howard purchased illegal drugs for herself and the two victims.

For over a month, the two victims’ commercial sex income was the sole source of support for all the residents in the apartment.

Lockley and Shannon were previously sentenced for their involvement in the sex trafficking crimes.

The case was investigated by the FBI, the Montgomery Police Department and the Alabama Attorney General’s Office investigated this case, with assistance from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys J. Patrick Lamb and Tara S. Ratz for the Middle District of Alabama, and Assistant Attorney General Audrey Jordan of the Alabama Attorney General’s Office prosecuted the case.