Illinois man sentenced for sex trafficking in Tippecanoe County

LAFAYETTE, Ind. — An Illinois man was sentenced to jail within the Indiana Division of Corrections on Friday after he was arrested, tried and convicted of kid intercourse trafficking and selling prostitution in Lafayette.

Court docket paperwork say James Williams, of Decatur, Illinois, was arrested in October 2020 after a 16-year-old woman instructed Lafayette police exterior a Lafayette motel off State Street 26, close to Interstate 65, that Williams was serving as “her pimp.” The LPD officers then discovered and arrested Williams in a room contained in the Motel 6 on Frontage Street.

Cellphone proof recovered by police investigators confirmed that between March 2020 and Oct. 13, 2020, Williams texted commercials and pictures of the woman to quite a few cellphone numbers, together with charges and places to rearrange for conferences the place the woman would interact in sexual activity in return for cash.

The encounters would happen all through Indiana and Illinois, she mentioned.

Williams, who’s 35 years outdated, was convicted on two felony counts after a bench trial in Tippecanoe County in March. He was sentenced to serve 9 years in jail and three extra years on probation.

In response to Tippecanoe County Prosecutor Pat Harrington, the woman instructed the courtroom that “every thing modified for the higher after she spoke to those officers,” and that her cooperation led to Williams’ convictions.