LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — Kentucky's attorney general is fighting to uphold the prison sentence for a man convicted of chaining a woman to the floor of a home near Louisville's Park Hill neighborhood in 2023.
Moises May, 39, was sentenced to 30 years in prison in July 2025 on five counts of human trafficking, kidnapping, intimidating a participant in the legal process, harassment with physical contact and terroristic threatening.
May was convicted of forcing his ex-girlfriend, Joanna Wilson, to have sex for money with several men, cutting her hair with a machete after an argument and eventually chaining her to the floor of his home in 2023.
May must serve 20% of his sentence before becoming eligible for parole. As he appeals his conviction, Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman said his office, as well as Commonwealth's Attorney Gerina D. Whethers' office, will "strongly defend" May's conviction before the state supreme court.
"This defendant was convicted of disturbing acts that have no place in our community. A jury made up of members of this community found him guilty and sent a clear message that heinous crimes need to be met with serious punishment," Whethers said in a news release.
A 'calculated and terrifying' crime
During his sentencing, prosecutors called May's actions a "calculated and terrifying crime."
His conviction was the first in Jefferson County under Kentucky's new human trafficking criminal statute. He was also the first defendant in Jefferson County to be sentenced for a crime following a jury verdict, and the second person in the state to be convicted by a jury of human trafficking and sentenced.
May was accused of chaining Wilson by the neck inside a home with no running water or access to food until she was able to kick out a window and scream for help. A neighbor called 911. The doors and the windows in the home were barricaded shut.
One of the first officers on the scene testified in April 2025 that Wilson had a padlock chained around her neck and bolted to the ground. He had to use an axe to break her free.
In addition, police couldn't get back out of the home after entering through the window as the doors were barricaded. Firefighters had to use a battering ram to get inside the home near the Park Hill and Algonquin neighborhoods off Dixie Highway.
In body camera footage shown to the jury, Wilson, crying and hyperventilating, tried to lead police around the home, telling them you had to have a key to get out.
"He never let me in there," she said as they passed one room with a padlock on the door.
Wilson previously told WDRB News that May, whom she shares a child with, cut her hair off with a machete, made her strip naked and put a chain around her neck, telling her he was going to kill her when he got back to the house they once shared.
She was rescued by police and firefighters Aug. 16, 2023, after a frantic 911 call from a neighbor.
Wilson told WDRB about the day she was freed: "I said, 'This is my only time, if I didn't get free now, I'll be dead. He made me strip naked, he put the chain around my neck, he called his friend and said, 'I've got to take this equipment back to Lowe's. When I come back, I'm going to kill you.' I only had a few minutes to get out."
She said she was chained up for about five hours.
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