A nine-day trial ended on Monday when a federal jury convicted a Florida man on 13 charges of sex trafficking nearly a dozen women, using addiction and violence as control tactics.
Shannima Session, 47, of Lake Placid, Florida, was manipulating women into prostitution with as many as 18 men in one night in “squalid trailers housing migrant workers or in local orange groves” in 2011–2013 and 2016–2019, according to the Justice Department.
Using the women’s dependence on drugs, unstable living situations, and need for housing, federal prosecutors said Session portrayed himself as “caring and empathetic” by promising legitimate work and assistance but was covertly gathering information on his victims’ vulnerabilities to ultimately exploit.
“The defendant used despicable and horrific means to terrify and coerce nearly a dozen women and girls to engage in commercial sex,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke with the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.
Clarke said the victims cooperated with the Justice Department to hold Session accountable “for the years of misery he inflicted on scores of women.”
The jury heard that Session gave his victims methamphetamine and cocaine “to give them sufficient energy.”
If victims didn’t follow his rules, food and housing were withheld, and physical violence was used to intimidate them, according to prosecutors.
“He violently punched some of the victims in the back of their heads in order not to leave marks on their bodies,” the Justice Department said. “Once, Session dragged a victim to a shower and beat her in the back of her head with a metal nutcracker until she fell limp to the floor. Session 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 Session would sometimes take his victims to a lake and hold them underwater to scare them into following his orders. He also “kept a firearm in his possession, and frequently displayed it to victims or referred to it when talking with them.”
At one point while driving, he pointed a gun at one of the women and threatened to kill her after she asked how he'd feel if someone treated his daughter the way he treats his victims, the Justice Department said.
The woman fled the vehicle and ran into the woods when he came to a stop.
Session will be sentenced on Dec. 19. He faces a sentence of 15 years to life in prison.
FBI Special Agent in Charge Jeffrey B. Veltri of the Miami Field Office said the Justice Department will continue to work with local and state law enforcement to “dismantle human trafficking networks that operate in the shadows and brutalize their victims.”
“Today’s verdict is a step towards justice for the nearly dozen victims who were forced by Shannima Yuantrell Session into sex trafficking and endured his reign of horrendous and abusive control,” Veltri said.
