By NEAL WAGNER / Managing Editor

COLUMBIANA – A Shelby County grand jury has upheld one count of second-degree human trafficking against a 38-year-old Hoover man, claiming he was involved in an “illegal escort service” in Alabaster.

The grand jury returned a one-count indictment during its May session upholding the felony human trafficking charge against Sutton Stafford Burleigh, who lists an address on Tyler Circle in Hoover.

He is now scheduled to appear in Shelby County Circuit Court for an indictment on July 8.

The Alabaster Police Department arrested Burleigh along with 54-year-old Jeffrey Todd Langley on Sept. 29, 2016, during an investigation into what police said was an illegal escort service involving at least one juvenile victim in and around the Alabaster area.

Langley was released from jail on bonds totaling $136,000 the day after he was arrested, but was booked back into the Shelby County Jail on a bond revocation in December 2018 after he was arrested on a drug charge in Jefferson County. He is now awaiting trial in Shelby County Circuit Court.

Langley faces up to life in prison if he is convicted of the first-degree human trafficking charge, and up to 20 years in prison if he is convicted of the second-degree human trafficking charge.

Burleigh was charged with one count of second-degree human trafficking and was released from jail the same day he was arrested after posting a $60,000 bond.

According to the indictments, Langley allegedly “arranged/provided individuals for (four victims) to engage in sex with for U.S. currency” between Jan. 1, 2008 and Sept. 23, 2016. Burleigh was allegedly involved in the illegal activity in June 2016, according to his arrest warrant.