Man forced girls, women into sex acts, threatened to drown them in Florida lake, feds say
A man lured nearly a dozen girls and women who were struggling in their personal lives with promises of love, housing and employment and then forced them into commercial sex acts that he profited off of in Florida, federal prosecutors said.
Shannima Yuantrell Session, of Lake Placid, who also goes by Shalamar, used violence and manipulation to “ensnare” them in his sex trafficking “enterprise” that spanned several years, according to the Justice Department.
During a nine-day trial in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, a federal jury heard prosecutors detail how Session would punch his victims in the back of their heads to avoid leaving bruises, and how he took several victims to a lake and held their heads underwater, prosecutors said.
At the lake, he “threatened to drown them if they did not do as he ordered,” according to prosecutors.
Ahead of trial, prosecutors said 10 of his 11 victims would testify about how he “grabbed them by the neck, threw objects at them, pushed them, held their heads underwater, or some combination thereof.”
The 11th victim, a 16-year-old, was rescued from Session by her mother before she could be forced into commercial sex, according to court documents.
Now, the jury has convicted Session, 47, on 13 sex trafficking charges, the Justice Department announced in a Sept. 23 news release.
His federal public defenders didn’t immediately respond to McClatchy News’ request for comment Sept. 24.
Session “used despicable and horrific means to terrify and coerce nearly a dozen women and girls to engage in commercial sex,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke, of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, said in the news release.
“It is a testament to the courageous young women who cooperated with law enforcement to expose, prosecute and hold accountable this defendant for the years of misery he inflicted on scores of women,” Clarke said.
Forced sex acts in ‘squalid trailers,’ orange groves
Session sex trafficked the girls and women between July 2011 and July 2013, and between February 2016 and February 2019, according to prosecutors.
He recruited seven of his victims, including two who were minors, “with loving words and acts” that made them “believe they were in romantic relationships,” prosecutors wrote in a trial brief.
One was 15 when Session met her as she was leaving her high school, according to prosecutors, who said he manipulated her into believing that they were in a relationship.
His “conduct in this respect was insidious because many of these victims came from tumultuous families or abusive relationships and were therefore particularly susceptible to (his) romantic advances,” the trial brief says.
When Session presented himself to his victims as caring, it was a ploy, according to prosecutors.
Session also promised work and housing to those “struggling with unstable living accommodations, substance abuse and neglect or who otherwise led unstable lives,” prosecutors said.
He lured four victims, including the 16-year-old who later escaped, by promising them they could work at his car wash called Luxurious Motors, the trial brief says.
Session would coerce his victims into sex acts in “squalid trailers housing migrant workers or in local orange groves,” according to prosecutors.
When one victim wouldn’t participate in commercial sex, Session restrained her as his brother raped her, telling her “maybe you’ll listen to me next time,” the trial brief says.
He raped another one of his victims “as a punishment” when she denied his advances “after a shift servicing commercial sex buyers,” according to the brief.
Session would regularly require the girls and women to participate in sex acts with him after they were forced to have sex with up to 18 men, prosecutors said.
Threats and control
The girls and women sex trafficked by Session didn’t try to escape at first because they were afraid, according to prosecutors.
One woman said she didn’t try to escape for more than a year because Session threatened to “gang rape” her daughter if she tried to leave, the trial brief says.
Another woman said she didn’t report Session after he tried drowning her because he threatened to kill her if she spoke out, according to prosecutors.
Session once dragged one woman into a shower and beat her head with a metal nutcracker until she went limp, prosecutors said.
He “also choked another victim to the point that she lost consciousness, beat another victim with a baseball bat and brutalized yet another so badly that her nose ring fell out due to the force of the assault,” prosecutors said.
The jury also heard how prosecutors said Session used a gun, food, housing and drugs as ways to keep control over his victims.
Session would give his victims cocaine and methamphetamine to keep them energized to have coerced sex with migrant men in mobile homes, according to prosecutors.
He also “manipulated and took advantage of some victims’ substance abuse problems to compel their commercial sex services,” prosecutors said.
Session is facing a minimum of 15 years in prison and up to life in prison, according to prosecutors.
He is scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 19.
“Human trafficking is a crime of exploitation,” U.S. Attorney Markenzy Lapointe, for the Southern District of Florida, said in the release. “We will not allow human traffickers to prey upon others for profit, as humans are not commodities but rather demand our united protection.”
This story was originally published September 24, 2024 at 10:56 AM with the headline "Man forced girls, women into sex acts, threatened to drown them in Florida lake, feds say."
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