A Texas woman whose case received support from activists and celebrities after her family alleged she was a victim of sex trafficking has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for her role in a fatal robbery, the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office announced Monday.

Zephaniah “Zephi” Trevino, 20, was charged in connection with the death of Carlos Arajeni-Arriaza Murillo, 24, who was fatally shot during a 2019 robbery at an apartment in Grand Prairie, Tex. Her attorney said Trevino pleaded guilty to murder and aggravated robbery to avoid risking a possible life sentence.

Trevino was prosecuted as an adult, despite being 16 at the time of the crime. She will concurrently serve a 12-year sentence for murder and a five-year sentence for aggravated robbery, according to a statement from the district attorney’s office.

But Justin Moore, Trevino’s attorney, said her guilty plea does not “signal an acceptance of the narrative the district attorney seeks to present.”

“Instead, it is a testament to the challenges of navigating a legal system that currently does not provide an affirmative defense for victims of sex trafficking,” Moore said in a statement to The Washington Post, “and [a] district attorney who has refused [to] view this case within a necessary trauma-informed lens.”

Trevino was among three people charged in Murillo’s death. Philip Aguilera Baldenegro and Jesse Martinez, who were 19 and 18, respectively, at the time of the shooting, were each charged with capital murder and aggravated robbery and are awaiting trial.

At issue in the case is whether Trevino’s actions during the robbery were related to sex trafficking. Trevino’s attorney and family have said that Trevino, then 16, was being sold for sex by Aguilera, her co-defendant, at the time of the shooting.

Experts and advocates for trafficking survivors said it’s common for victims of trafficking to commit other crimes, including robbery, at the behest of their abusers. A person under 18 engaging in commercial sex is considered a victim of sex trafficking under federal law, regardless of whether force, coercion or fraud is used.

A trafficking expert hired by Trevino’s attorney to interview her found her story “highly credible,” saying that Aguilera had “groomed” Trevino via social media, according to court documents shared with The Post.

But Aguilera’s attorney, David Finn, says his client was never a trafficker and has previously called Trevino’s trafficking claim a “smokescreen.” He told The Post in an interview that it was Trevino who organized the robbery. James Lee Bright, an attorney for Martinez, did not respond to a request for comment.

In court documents, prosecutors said Cristian Lobo met Trevino at a party; a month later, on Aug. 3, 2019, they allege Lobo and Murillo were lured to a Grand Prairie apartment so that Aguilera and Martinez could rob them. After Trevino left Lobo in a bedroom alone, Aguilera allegedly entered and beat him with a gun and fists while Martinez allegedly beat Murillo, who was in the living room.

The defendants allegedly ordered the victims to give up their wallets, phones and keys as Trevino searched their car for valuables. After the victims fought back, prosecutors say Aguilera then shot Murillo, who later died of his injuries. Lobo was wounded but survived.