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Speaker 1: Zeffi Travigno was a normal teenage girl growing up outside

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Speaker 1: of Dallas, Texas, with a life that revolved around family, church,

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Speaker 1: and softball. When Zephy got to high school, though, a

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Speaker 1: boyfriend introduced her to drugs and then broke her heart.

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Speaker 1: Then nineteen year old Philip Baldenegro swooped in through social

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Speaker 1: media to prey on this vulnerable high school sophomore. Baldenegro

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Speaker 1: introduced himself to Zephi's parents as a friend of Zephet's

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Speaker 1: from school, and soon used psychological manipulation, violence, and intimidation

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Speaker 1: to drag Zephy into the dark underworld of sex trafficking.

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Speaker 1: Alarming changes in Zeffi's behavior prompted Henry and Crystal Travigno

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Speaker 1: to install a tracking app on their daughter's phone, but

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Speaker 1: this didn't stop Baldenegro from using Zefpfi's body and her

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Speaker 1: misery for his profit. Then, on August third, twenty nineteen,

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Speaker 1: two men were lured to an apartment with the promise

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Speaker 1: of sex with Zephi. The men were robbed instead by

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Speaker 1: Baldenegro and an accomplice, and a fight broke out, resulting

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Speaker 1: in Baldenegro shooting and killing one of the would be

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Speaker 1: child rapists. This is going to be a first for

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Speaker 1: this podcast, an interview that takes place before trial, before

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Speaker 1: a grave mistake is made, where I speak with Zeppi's lawyer,

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Speaker 1: Justin Moore and her mother, Crystal Travino. Zeffi is currently

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Speaker 1: out of Juvie awaiting trial while the Dallas County District

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Speaker 1: Attorney tries to charge her for her sex traffickers crime,

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Speaker 1: compounding what has already been an unbelievably tragic experience by

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Speaker 1: potentially sending Zephi to spend the rest of her life

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Speaker 1: in prison. This is Wrongful Conviction with Jason Plomm. Welcome

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Speaker 1: back to Wrongful Conviction with Jason Flamm. That's me. I'm

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Speaker 1: your host, of course, and today we are going telling

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Speaker 1: a story that is happening in real time and beyond that,

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Speaker 1: it's a story that is so disturbing. You know, I

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Speaker 1: think that anyone who's a parent while then may be

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Speaker 1: hard to hear. It's something that you need to hear.

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Speaker 1: There are going to be action steps at the end

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Speaker 1: of it, and there are things we can do to

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Speaker 1: make a difference. We're going to be telling the story

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Speaker 1: today of a young teenage girl named Zeffi Travino who

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Speaker 1: was sex trafficked then re victimized by the authorities at

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Speaker 1: a time when they should have and I believe did

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Speaker 1: know better. First, I want to introduce to you an

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Speaker 1: emerging giant in the defense community. Justin Moore, who is

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Speaker 1: Zeffi's lawyer, is here. So Justin, welcome to Ronfuel Conviction.

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Speaker 1: Thank you, Jyson. And today with us is one of

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Speaker 1: the most courageous and strong women I've ever had the

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Speaker 1: privilege to know. Zeffi's mom, Crystal Travino, is here, so Crystal,

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Speaker 1: thank you for being here with us today.

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Speaker 2: Thank you so much. Jason.

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Speaker 1: So, this is a story of a young girl from

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Speaker 1: I'm going to call it a normal family, right, whatever

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Speaker 1: normal is. This is a nuclear family in a town

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Speaker 1: in Texas outside of Dallas.

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Speaker 2: This took place in Grand Priri, Texas, which is between

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Speaker 2: Dallas and Fort Worth, just a suburb city.

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Speaker 1: Tell us about Zeffie growing up and about the family

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Speaker 1: situation prior to this disastrous chain of events.

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Speaker 2: Like you said, we're a normal family. She was into sports, softball,

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Speaker 2: specifically volleyball. She loves music, she loves to sing. She

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Speaker 2: was just kind of one of those kids that people

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Speaker 2: were drawn to, very charismatic, laughing, having fun, and really

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Speaker 2: supported by her siblings. You know, she has three older siblings,

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Speaker 2: two sisters and a brother, her church family and the community,

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Speaker 2: my husband and myself softball coaches, so just what I

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Speaker 2: would consider everybody's normal family. And as she entered into

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Speaker 2: high school a young man, her freshman year introduced her

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Speaker 2: to drugs and a toxic relationship, and so Zephie struggled

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Speaker 2: with that her freshman year. Going into her sophomore year,

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Speaker 2: which was her sixteenth birthday year, we saw so many changes,

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Speaker 2: not just physically, mentally starting to have a lot of

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Speaker 2: anxiety and withdraw from her family, and to see her

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Speaker 2: sleep a lot, and to see her ley's weight, and

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Speaker 2: just what I would consider vulnerable. You know, she was

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Speaker 2: trying to overcome all these things that had happened from

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Speaker 2: the previous boyfriend. And we didn't realize, but she meets

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Speaker 2: Philip through social media May of twenty nineteen. We met

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Speaker 2: Philip in our home. When we met him, he just

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Speaker 2: did not seem the type of person that Zephy and

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Speaker 2: I would normally be associated with. Very quiet, very strange.

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Speaker 2: She didn't introduce him as her boyfriend, just as a friend,

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Speaker 2: and asked how they knew each other. He said through

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Speaker 2: and also said that he was seventeen at the time.

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Speaker 2: My daughter was sixteen.

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Speaker 1: So and of course we're talking about nineteen year old

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Speaker 1: Philip Baldenegro who had already, I guess, identified her as

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Speaker 1: a potential target and was already sort of using the

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Speaker 1: various mind games and other coercive tactics to sort of

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Speaker 1: draw her into his web. You know, the way this

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Speaker 1: thing unraveled, it reminds me as much as anything of

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Speaker 1: the movie Cape Fear with Robert de Niro, because this

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Speaker 1: Baldenegro character, you know, began keeping Zephie out all hours

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Speaker 1: of the night. The Travinos, to their credit, Henry and Crystal,

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Speaker 1: it's stalled the tracking app on her phone because they

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Speaker 1: obviously knew that things were not right with this new

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Speaker 1: person in her life. Little could they have known just

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Speaker 1: how bad it was. But then one night she didn't

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Speaker 1: come home at all, the tracking app was deleted and

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Speaker 1: her phone had been turned off.

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Speaker 2: You know, we had the Life three sixty app for

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Speaker 2: kids on there that turns off social media tracks. But

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Speaker 2: when it's deleted, you know, your hands are tied. They

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Speaker 2: communicated through text and I always thought that it was

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Speaker 2: my daughter texting. I can't even say that for sure

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Speaker 2: now that it wasn't film texting saying that the movie

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Speaker 2: was over and that they would be home after eating

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Speaker 2: a small bite, and then she's gone.

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Speaker 1: It was investigated as a missing person's case. She came

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Speaker 1: home two days later, hadn't eaten anything, and she was

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Speaker 1: wearing clothes that had not been provided to her by

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Speaker 1: the family, So all the alarm bells are going off.

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Speaker 2: You know, my gut was she was on drugs, and

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Speaker 2: to see your child decline the way that she did,

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Speaker 2: it was very hard to understand what was going on

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Speaker 2: because it was happening so fast.

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Speaker 1: What did you do at that point? And what could

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Speaker 1: you advise other parents to do in that situation?

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Speaker 2: You know you're trusting And I'll say this, Jason, that

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Speaker 2: you know I've worked in a school district, so I

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Speaker 2: always saw kids differently, I guess in my eyes. So

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Speaker 2: I never wanted to just point blank be like this

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Speaker 2: kid is no good. But I look back on it

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Speaker 2: now and I think I felt it. I knew it,

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Speaker 2: and so as a parent, if your gut is telling

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Speaker 2: you This is not a good thing. This is not

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Speaker 2: a good idea. They shouldn't have gone out to the movies.

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Speaker 2: Go with your gut feeling. I'm not sure what could

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Speaker 2: have been done other than you know, for parents, I

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Speaker 2: would suggest be on that social media on their phones.

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Speaker 2: Do whatever you can. And I hate to say this,

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Speaker 2: but they don't have privacy. Do whatever you have to

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Speaker 2: do to protect your kid. The predator that entered my

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Speaker 2: daughter's life looked like the normal teenage person and was

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Speaker 2: able to manipulate, threaten, change her, change everything that was

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Speaker 2: happening in our life and in her life at the time.

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Speaker 2: What I understood sex trafficking to be looked totally different

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Speaker 2: than what has happened in our family. I always pictured

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Speaker 2: the movie Taken, where your kid is kidnapped and taken

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Speaker 2: across you know, countries, and it's happening right here, right

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Speaker 2: here in America, right here in Texas, and it can

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Speaker 2: happen to any young girl that's vulnerable or is trusting

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Speaker 2: a young boy.

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Speaker 1: And we know now that this was a very violent guy.

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Speaker 1: And this is I think a tactic that is not uncommon,

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Speaker 1: which is that the trafficker will once they identify and

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Speaker 1: they coerce their victim into this web. They will then

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Speaker 1: use threats of violence or actual violence against them, but

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Speaker 1: also against their families. So they put the child in

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Speaker 1: an impossible situation where they're saying, look, if you try

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Speaker 1: to run away or you try to tell the authorities

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Speaker 1: about us or whatever, we're going to harm your family.

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Speaker 1: We might kill your family. And when you're sitting there

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Speaker 1: in that situation and you recognize that this is a

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Speaker 1: person who is capable of extreme violence, in fact you're

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Speaker 1: on the receiving end of it, there's every reason that

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Speaker 1: you should take those threats seriously. And that's exactly what

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Speaker 1: Zeffi was experiencing. And then things got really insane. On

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Speaker 1: August third, twenty nineteen, at around four point thirty pm,

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Speaker 1: twenty four year old Carlos Morio and another man went

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Speaker 1: to an apartment on the three hundred block of Northeast

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Speaker 1: fifth Street in Grand Prairie, Texas. They were lured there

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Speaker 1: by the promise of sex with Zephi Baldenegro and an

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Speaker 1: accomplished Jesse Martinez surprised and robbed the men. A fight

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Speaker 1: broke out, resulting in Baldeegro shooting and killing Morio and

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Speaker 1: I do want to turn to you, Justin's if you

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Speaker 1: can explain how this turned into it turned into with

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Speaker 1: Zeffi being charged with capital murder for a shooting that

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Speaker 1: no one claims that she committed.

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Speaker 3: No one. When the Travinos reached out to me and

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Speaker 3: they explained the details of this case, it was something

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Speaker 3: that really grabbed me immediately. And I can't speak to

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Speaker 3: specifics because I'm bound to confidentiality laws regarding minors. But

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Speaker 3: what I can't talk about are the facts that are

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Speaker 3: incontrovertible at the moment. What we do know is that

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Speaker 3: Baldenaegro has admitted to being the shooter. And we do

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Speaker 3: know that the two men that one of which was murdered,

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Speaker 3: but the other one that was assaulted by Baldenegro and

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Speaker 3: his accomplice, they were there to purchase sex from a

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Speaker 3: minor child. You know, these facts are incontrovertible. Everybody knows

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Speaker 3: that these are the facts.

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Speaker 1: There's not one person on any side of this that

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Speaker 1: claims that she shot a gun held a gun. I mean,

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Speaker 1: here's a young girl in a place that she's not

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Speaker 1: in of her own free will, and then a dispute

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Speaker 1: breaks out in the middle of a robbery that results

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Speaker 1: in a murder. So what was she supposed to do?

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Speaker 1: Put on some sort of superhero cape and try to

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Speaker 1: stop them. I mean, she was there because she was

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Speaker 1: in the process of being kidnapped, and she was being

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Speaker 1: held there so that somebody could make money by selling

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Speaker 1: her body. And I hate saying it, I hate hearing

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Speaker 1: myself say it, but that's what it was. So then

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Speaker 1: this murder takes place, and Zeppi, a victim, a child

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Speaker 1: sex trafficking victim, is now being charged as a perpetrator.

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Speaker 3: What has been wildly reported was that Zeffi was in

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Speaker 3: pre trial custody in the Dallas County Juvenile Facility for

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Speaker 3: a year awaiting trial, and obviously that's spilled into the

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Speaker 3: COVID nineteen pandemic. I definitely want to commend you, Jason.

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Speaker 3: A lot of the attention that you brought this case

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Speaker 3: allowed for Zephi to be released pre trial, along with

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Speaker 3: the legal work too. But I actually got worried about

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Speaker 3: this from Crystal and Henry Zeffie's parents. The Dallas District

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Speaker 3: Attorney's office is actually trying to certify her as an adult.

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Speaker 3: So if she gets certified as an adult, She's going

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Speaker 3: to be facing life in prison if she takes this

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Speaker 3: to trial and god forbid, loses at trial. She's facing

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Speaker 3: conviction as an adult for being a victim. It's a

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Speaker 3: failed social policy in which we allow a young child

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Speaker 3: who's been victimized severely to be placed in this position,

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Speaker 3: to be doubly victimized by the criminal justice system.

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Speaker 2: She was sixteen, she was a child. There were four

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Speaker 2: grown men in that place. She was the only one

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Speaker 2: that was a child. She is a victim. She was

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Speaker 2: being sex trafficked. She did not pull the trigger, she

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Speaker 2: did not beat them, she did not steal anything. I

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Speaker 2: really have a hard time understanding why my daughter is

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Speaker 2: in this situation.

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Speaker 1: Anytime I read about a state trying to decide whether

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Speaker 1: to try a child as an adult. Who gets to

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Speaker 1: decide whether a child is an adult? Is that like

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Speaker 1: deciding whether up is down? A child is a child.

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Speaker 1: When you're sixteen, you don't know shit about anything. The

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Speaker 1: world is still a mystery. So how does this state

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Speaker 1: of Texas get to even say, on a broad legal principle,

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Speaker 1: justin that this child is an adult, we've decided if

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Speaker 1: she's an adult.

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Speaker 3: As a general principle, as a broad legal principle states,

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Speaker 3: especially the state of Texas, that can try a child

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Speaker 3: as an adult when it comes to the severity of

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Speaker 3: the crime, or if the child, through a diagnostic exam,

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Speaker 3: has shown themselves to a mental type of nature that

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Speaker 3: implies some level of criminality that goes up and beyond

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Speaker 3: what a child should exhibit. I mean, I think it's

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Speaker 3: very abstract stuff. At the end of the day, children

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Speaker 3: are children. If you're under the age of eighteen, you

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Speaker 3: can't contract to do anything with your life. You need

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Speaker 3: a parent's consent. But yet when it comes to the

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Speaker 3: criminal justice system, they completely ignore this element when it

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Speaker 3: comes to the mental state or the men's rea of

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Speaker 3: a young child. So as a broad principle, I mean,

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Speaker 3: it's well settled that children can be tried as adults

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Speaker 3: in certain contexts, But practically speaking, I think this policy

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Speaker 3: should be eradicated from society. I mean, you know, also

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Speaker 3: you have to look at the legacy of racism when

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Speaker 3: it comes to trying children as adults. I mean it

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Speaker 3: comes from this notion of typically back in Jim Crow era,

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Speaker 3: in which a criminal justice system endeavored to try young

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Speaker 3: black men as adults to answer for crimes in a

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Speaker 3: very serious way that provided retribution or some type of bloodlust.

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Speaker 1: One of the cases that haunts me is the case

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Speaker 1: of George Stinney Junior. Right, George Stinney Junior. Of course,

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Speaker 1: he was found innocent years and years later. In nineteen

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Speaker 1: forty four, was a fourteen year old boy who was

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Speaker 1: charged with murdering two little white girls. His trial took

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Speaker 1: two hours, the jury deliberated for ten minutes that he

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Speaker 1: was executed. He had to sit on a fucking telephone

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Speaker 1: book because he was so small in order for them

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Speaker 1: to even electrocute him. And of course he has been exonerated,

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Speaker 1: but a lot of good that does. So that goes

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Speaker 1: right back to your point. That's the grotesque history of

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Speaker 1: treating children like adults in our criminal legal system. There's

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Speaker 1: no other place in society where a sixteen year old

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Speaker 1: is considered an adult.

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Speaker 3: The fact that we have a young child who was

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Speaker 3: a victim of sex trafficking now possibly being exposed to

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Speaker 3: life in prison, I just don't understand why that's the

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Speaker 3: policy here. I don't understand why Dallas County is pursuing this.

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Speaker 2: You know, we had public defenders at the very beginning

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Speaker 2: of this case, and they told us she's not being

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Speaker 2: certified as an adult. She is certified as a juvenile.

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Speaker 2: So fast forward a year. How do you determine someone

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Speaker 2: was a child then and an adult then? And no

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Speaker 2: one has been able to answer that for me, if

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Speaker 2: you're sixteen or sixteen year a child, how do you

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Speaker 2: say she's an adult? I don't understand that you want.

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Speaker 3: To certify a child's sex trafficking victim as an adult.

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Speaker 3: It's almost perverted in a way. It's almost you're saying that, no,

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Speaker 3: she was actually voluntarily selling herself for sex. And we

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Speaker 3: know as children you can't enter a contract for anything

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Speaker 3: at that age. So now, I don't want to sound

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Speaker 3: like a broken record, but no child can enter into

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Speaker 3: a contract, especially a sex contract, But certifying them as

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Speaker 3: an adult kind of counteracts that well settled legal principle.

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Speaker 1: Where are we now and what can people do about it?

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Speaker 3: I think people can join in the advocacy that you've

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Speaker 3: been doing, and other folks, other thought leaders in the space,

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Speaker 3: have been joining in on getting the word out and

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Speaker 3: lifting our voices and showing the powers that be here

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Speaker 3: in Dallas County that this isn't right. Is going to

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Speaker 3: be a very important element of assisting Zefi and overcoming

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Speaker 3: these charges.

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Speaker 1: To donate to the legal defense, go to directly to

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Speaker 1: dot org. There's also a petition that you can sign

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Speaker 1: on change dot org, and there's a form letter to

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Speaker 1: the DA that you can sign on actiondetwork dot org,

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Speaker 1: and of course follow the hashtag free ze on Instagram.

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Speaker 1: You can also get updates from me at It's Jason Flum.

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Speaker 1: That's my Instagram at It's Jason Flumm. Will have all

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Speaker 1: of these action steps linked in the bio pressure breaks pipes.

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Speaker 2: And Jason, thank you for everything that you've done. We

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Speaker 2: really really appreciate this interview. We appreciate the support. You know,

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Speaker 2: Selena Gomez, Kim Kardashian, Satoya Brown, who herself has gone

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Speaker 2: through a tremendous story of her own. Everyone that has

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Speaker 2: supported Zephy since they've heard this story. There are many

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Speaker 2: other victims that are out there. They need a voice,

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Speaker 2: they need help. Every voice, every post, Instagram, letter, written

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Speaker 2: phone call, all of those things help not only Zephaniah,

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Speaker 2: but the legal system kind of take a closer look

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Speaker 2: at what's happening, especially here in Texas, and to help

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Speaker 2: the DA recognize the truth of this case.

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Speaker 1: It's almost like we're so ashamed as a country that

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Speaker 1: this actually goes on that we don't even talk about it.

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Speaker 1: And I'm glad you mentioned Sintoya Lisa Montgomery. Of course,

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Speaker 1: there's a wonderful story the flip side of a woman

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Speaker 1: named Tara Simmons, a dear friend of mine who was

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Speaker 1: sex trafficked as a young teenage girl, was in prison

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Speaker 1: and now has ended up graduating at the top of

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Speaker 1: her class from the University of Washington law school and

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Speaker 1: is now an elected representative in the state of Washington.

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Speaker 1: And I'm so freaking proud of her, and I hope

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Speaker 1: that the future is going to look as bright for

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Speaker 1: Zeffie and that she's going to get through this. Hopefully

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Speaker 1: the distric attorney will drop the charges and basically acknowledge

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Speaker 1: that this was a mistake. So now we turn to

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Speaker 1: the closing of our show, which is I think the

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Speaker 1: best part every week. It's my favorite part. It's a

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Speaker 1: part we call closing arguments. First of all, I thank

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Speaker 1: each of you. Justin Moore, defense attorney and social justice advocate,

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Speaker 1: thank you for being here. And Crystal Trevino, thank you

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Speaker 1: for showing up us all what courage looks like. And

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Speaker 1: now I get to turn my microphone off and we

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Speaker 1: my headphones on and just listen as each of you

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Speaker 1: can share your thoughts on anything you want to share

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Speaker 1: your thoughts on, and justin let's have you go first,

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Speaker 1: if that's okay, and save Crystal for.

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Speaker 3: A last thank you, Jason. I mean, in conclusion, I

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Speaker 3: think this case is the canary in the cave. Sex

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Speaker 3: trafficking is pervasive throughout our society, and sex trafficking including minors,

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Speaker 3: is equally pervasive. If you want to put it into this,

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Speaker 3: we have to start with the criminal justice system and

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Speaker 3: how it treats victims that are placed in these precarious positions.

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Speaker 3: The criminal justice system endeavors not to acknowledge that victimhood.

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Speaker 3: We're going to further stigmatize these folks who are involved

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Speaker 3: and ensnared in these trauma bonds with these traffickers, and

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Speaker 3: we're not going to empower them to step up and

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Speaker 3: speak out about the abuse that they are a part of.

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Speaker 3: So we need people to advocate for a criminal justice

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Speaker 3: system that has compassion but also nuanced when it looks

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Speaker 3: at sex trafficking victims. And so we have that this

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Speaker 3: is going to continue to be an issue, and we

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Speaker 3: need to start protecting folks who can't protect themselves.

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Speaker 2: Christal Well, again, thank you for giving us this opportunity

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Speaker 2: to speak Dallas County. The legal system in general has

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Speaker 2: not even acknowledged that my child was a victim, and

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Speaker 2: she continues to be victimized. Sex trafficking doesn't look like

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Speaker 2: what we all have in our head or what we've

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Speaker 2: been told or what's been on the news. Yes, those

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Speaker 2: are very real situations, but sex trafficking can be the

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Speaker 2: young adult next door, most victims in any situation of abuse,

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Speaker 2: or people that you know and people that you have

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Speaker 2: come to trust. I ask that there'd be some resources

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Speaker 2: for parents when this is all and done, to help

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Speaker 2: recognize signs, because it is heartbreaking and it is very

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Speaker 2: much a part of our life from here on outh.

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Speaker 2: I've said this before that this is the battle before

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Speaker 2: us right now to get her free. But we'll continue

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Speaker 2: to battle and we'll continue to heal from every aspect

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Speaker 2: of this, from the law, from her being in juvenile,

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Speaker 2: from her being victimized, for her being sex trafficked and

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Speaker 2: sexually abused. Thank you for saying we're courageous, but I'll

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Speaker 2: be honest, it is truly by our faith in God

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Speaker 2: that has held us and has kept us. My prayer

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Speaker 2: would be that the legal system recognized my daughter as

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Speaker 2: a sex traffic victim and they change the law because she's.

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Speaker 4: Not the only one I know that. I know there

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Speaker 4: are other young women and probably men that have gone

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Speaker 4: through this. And when a sex traffic victim or a

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Speaker 4: victim in general speaks out and you do nothing, you're

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Speaker 4: literally saying they don't matter. Everyone, please keep us in prayer.

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Speaker 2: Pray for the DA to open his eyes and recognize

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Speaker 2: and do something about it and drop this case.

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Speaker 1: Don't forget to give us a fantastic review wherever you

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Speaker 1: get your podcasts. It really helps. And I'm a proud

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Speaker 1: donor to the Ennocence Project and I really hope you'll

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Speaker 1: join me in supporting this very important cause and helping

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Speaker 1: to prevent future wrongful convictions. Go to Innocenceproject dot org

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Speaker 1: to learn how to donate and get involved. I'd like

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Speaker 1: to thank our production team, Connor Hall and Kevin Wartis.

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Speaker 1: The music in the show is by three time OSCAR

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Speaker 1: nominated composer Jay Ralph. Be sure to follow us on

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Speaker 1: Instagram at Wrongful Conviction and on Facebook at Wrongful Conviction.

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Speaker 1: Podcast Wrongful Conviction with Jason Flahm is a production of

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Speaker 1: Lava for Good Podcasts and association with Signal Company Number

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Speaker 1: one