After a nine-day trial, a federal jury in Florida convicted Shannima Yuantrell Session, also known as Shalamar, 47, of Lake Placid, Florida, on 13 counts of sex trafficking nearly a dozen women and girls, officials announced this week.
Session forced some victims into commercial sex acts between July 2011 and July 2013, and others between February 2016 and February 2019.
Special Agent in Charge Jeffrey B. Veltri of the FBI Miami Field Office stated: “This verdict is a testament to the cooperation and commitment of several law enforcement agencies including the Highlands County Sheriff’s Office, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida and the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. We will continue working with these and other partners to dismantle human trafficking networks that operate in the shadows and brutalize their victims.”
Session’s sentencing is set for Dec. 19. He faces up to life in prison.
Evidence at trial showed that Session lured vulnerable women and girls with false promises of jobs and housing. Many of his victims were struggling with unstable living situations, substance abuse, or neglect. He gained their trust by pretending to be caring and empathetic, but then exploited their vulnerabilities, forcing them into commercial sex in rundown trailers or local orange groves.
Session often used food and housing to control his victims. In one case, he withheld food from a victim if she disobeyed him. He also forced his victims to have sex with him after they had been coerced into sleeping with up to 18 men in a single night.
The evidence also showed that Session used extreme physical violence to control and intimidate his victims. He would punch them in the back of the head to avoid leaving visible marks.
In one instance, he dragged a victim to a shower and beat her with a metal nutcracker until she collapsed. He choked another victim until she passed out, beat one with a baseball bat, and assaulted another so severely that her nose ring fell out. He also took several victims to a lake, where he held their heads underwater, threatening to drown them if they disobeyed.
The evidence also revealed that Session used a firearm to intimidate and control his victims. He regularly carried a gun and often displayed or mentioned it during interactions with them.
In one instance, after a victim asked how he would feel if someone treated his daughter the same way, Session pointed a gun at her while driving and threatened to kill her. When he stopped the car and approached her door, she fled into nearby woods. Session responded by firing a shot into the air and calling out her name.
The evidence also showed that Session exploited some victims’ substance abuse issues to force them into commercial sex. He gave them cocaine and methamphetamine to keep them energized for sex acts with multiple men in nearby trailers.
The FBI Miami Field Office, Ft. Pierce Resident Agency, investigated the case.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Justin Hoover for the Southern District of Florida and Trial Attorneys Leah Branch and Matthew Thiman of the Civil Rights Division’s Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit are prosecuting the case.
For more information about human trafficking, please visit www.humantraffickinghotline.org. Information on the Justice Department’s efforts to combat human trafficking can be found at www.justice.gov/humantrafficking.