He slapped and stabbed women to live the pimp life. Now, he’ll do life for pimping
Two of the women Lake Worth resident Alston Williams’ enslaved as prostitutes when they were girls called him an “evil, destructive person” and a “cancer” that needs to be cut out of society before his federal court sentencing Wednesday.
Williams’ attorney pointed to the split jury verdict and the sentence given another Palm Beach county sex criminal convicted sex criminal, Jeffrey Epstein, in arguing for a sentence closer to the 15-year minimum.
Judge Robin L. Rosberg’s sentencing of Williams, 43, told where the court came down: five life sentences, one life sentence for each of the first five counts of sex trafficking of children by fraud, force or coercion. Williams got 20 years on the sixth count, to run concurrently with quintuple life. Williams also was convicted of obstruction of an human trafficking investigation.
Acquittals on five sex trafficking charges and one forced labor charge did Williams no good.
“As far as time I think he should get the max,” one victim wrote in her victim impact statement. “I don’t believe Alston Williams should have hope he will get out one day because I never had hope I would get out of there. Alston Williams (is) a evil destructive person and deserves the worst punishment.”
According to his arrest report, Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office learned about Williams when one of his victims got fed up after he took her to the Virgin Islands to do Hurricane Irma cleanup work on his mother’s house there.
Though she told PBCSO she’d been caught twice trying to escape and Williams threatened her family with death if she tried a third time, she sneaked a call in to PBCSO. To cover herself with Williams, she arranged to meet investigators at a hotel room as if they were prostitution johns and told them her story there.
She said after being introduced to Williams, he convinced her to move into a house in Tamarac with other women and work for an escort agency. Soon after, she said, when any woman defied Williams, he enforced his will with punishments in front of the others such as needles to the buttocks and slapping a woman’s vagina.
When Williams showed up to pick her up from the Nov. 29, 2017 “date” with PBCSO investigators, he got arrested.
The Palm Beach Post said Williams’ federal public defender, Fletcher Peacock, invoked the deal given Epstein, whose criminal sexual acts with underage women and ensuing 18-month sentence (he did 13 months in county jail) were detailed in The Herald’s Perversion of Justice report.
“They let Mr. Epstein completely off. They didn’t even charge him,” Peacock said, according to The Post. “It’s troubling that the government takes that position in that case and takes the position that a life sentence is appropriate in this case. It’s gross disparity and the court shouldn’t sanction it.”
The victim who called Williams “a cancer that destroys the mind, eat away at your flesh, and rips families apart” said she still finds it hard to make direct eye contact with anyone after Williams’ abuse.
“I have no doubt in my mind that if (given) the chance to walk amongst society, Nino will seek a young woman and use her mind, body, soul and worth for the purpose of funding his lifestyle with no regards for that person’s life, or state of mind,” she wrote. “So, for reasons above and so many others, I am asking the court to uphold his punishment to the full extent of the law. Let’s cut the cancer so that other young ladies will never ever get the chance to breathe the same air as Williams.”
This story was originally published May 5, 2019 at 3:10 PM.