He pimped out a 15-year-old on Backpage.com. Prison next for sex trafficking, porn
A West Palm Beach man has been sentenced to 15 years in federal prison for forcing a 15-year-old into sex with adult men an average of 15 times a day.
Steven Snipe, 27, was sentenced May 1 after he pleaded guilty to one count of sex trafficking and one count of child pornography.
According to court documents, Boynton Beach police found the girl, a five-foot-three 15-year-old with a swollen, bruised face and cuts inside of her mouth after Snipe punched her and threw her against the wall on June 29, 2017.
The following week, while in a hospital, she told cops how she wound up under Snipe’s brutal control.
While living in a home for girls in Lake Worth, she went to a park looking for drugs to satisfy her addiction. Two contacts couldn’t get her what she wanted, but did call two men named “Blue” and “Kilo.”
As indicated by their street names, they could provide what the girl wanted. But they used the drugs to enslave her, forcing her to prostitute herself in cars around the Lantana Road area and “outcall dates.”
“Each day, she gave Kilo and Blue all the cash proceeds of prostitution activities and, in return, they would pay her with crack cocaine and heroin to keep her motivated to work,” court documents said.
Kilo and Blue worked her out of a Motel 6 in Lantana. When she tried to leave, Blue berated her and hit her. Snipe came to her “rescue,” telling Blue “maybe you should treat her better” and getting her to come to his Motel 6 room.
She didn’t know Snipe and Blue were pals, so much so that the car Snipe drove her around in actually was Blue’s.
Snipe treated the 15-year-old like a girlfriend, giving her compliments, clothes, food, entertainment and an LG cellphone. But he also was swapping her drugs, “weaning her off of heroin and instead, giving her “molly.”
The girl told cops “this had the effect of making her feel erotic. The minor-victim and [Snipe] started dating and immediately began having a sexual relationship multiple times a day.”
Snipe had her set up Facebook, Snapchat and Instagram accounts. He took pictures of her wearing clothes he bought for her, pictures of her trying to look sexy, then wearing no clothes at all. Backpage.com hadn’t been shut down yet and Snipe told her to put up an ad, saying she was 19 years old (She’d told Snipe her birthdate, so unless he was terrible at math, he knew she was 15).
“While prostituting for the defendant at the Motel 6 , Holiday Inn Express, and Super 8 Motel in Lantana, the charges were $200 an hour, $150 for a half hour and $80 for a quick visit,” prosecutors’ sentencing documents say. “The minor-victim advised she averaged 15 clients per day, to a maximum of 20 clients per day. When they moved to the Marriott in Boynton Beach, the charges were $250 an hour, $150 for a half hour and $100 for a quick visit. Any clients who wanted domination were charged $250 an hour with a minimum of two hours, but usually lasted three to five hours.”
Snipe turned violent at the Marriott, according to the documents. He began working her 24 hours a day, only allowing naps between clients. The girl told cops she stole money from clients and snuck in room service meals when Snipe wasn’t there.
He would rape her while she slept, she said. The last time he did so, it was followed by the beating that prompted her to call 911.
And her cellphone had pictures and videos of her having sex. That’s the child pornography conviction..
This story was originally published May 12, 2019 at 1:39 PM.
