Former Chicago taxi driver sentenced in sex-trafficking case

CHICAGO (AP) - A former suburban Chicago taxi driver has been sentenced to nearly 50 years in federal prison for forcing young women into prostitution.

Federal prosecutors said Friday that 43-year-old McKenzie Carson raped and beat the women if they disobeyed him. Prosecutors say he often targeted vulnerable women, some of whom were runaways, and supplied them with heroin to help exert his control.

Prosecutor Jennie Levin said his conduct had been "brutal and sadistic" and that he'd done "irreparable harm" to his four victims. All four testified at the Bolingbrook man's 2013 trial.

Prosecutors say Carson worked part time as a taxi driver in the Chicago area before his 2012 arrest. He was convicted of four counts of sex trafficking.

Judge Elaine Bucklo handed Carson the 47-year prison sentence Thursday.