CINCINNATI — A Cincinnati man convicted in federal court of child sex exploitation and trafficking will spend 40 years in prison, according to Kenneth L. Parker, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio.

Kelly Richards, 43, will also face a lifetime of supervised release if he is ever released from prison, a news release from Parker’s office said.

Richards was found guilty in April after a six-day trial; he had faced five different charges and been convicted of all of them.

Parker said Richards deserves to spend the next 40 days in jail.

“Richards drugged, raped, abused, photographed and sold two teenage girls,” Parker said in a press release.

Parker said the minors were held for days in a one-bedroom apartment in Cincinnati while they were physically and sexually abused by Richards and other men. Richards also had several weapons in the home that he was not allowed to possess, Parker said.

During the trial, testimony revealed that investigators learned about Richards in Marco in 2023 after two minors were screened as potential sex trafficking victims. According to Parker’s office, Richards took the two juveniles in after they ran away from a Dayton group home.

He then held them in his one-bedroom apartment in Cincinnati, where he gave them cocaine before assaulting them, Parker’s office said.

Richards also forced the two minors to have sex with other men in exchange for money Richards kept; Parker’s office says Richards went so far as to create online prostitution ads that featured explicit images of the victims.

Richards kept the two victims in his apartment for several days. According to court documents, one of the minors prostituted herself up to four times a day in different hotels and homes.