ST. LOUIS – A man from Memphis on Tuesday admitted prostituting a teen in St. Louis.Mack Mitchell, 35, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in St.
Louis to one count of sex trafficking of a minor. Mitchell admitted meeting the victim on Tag, a social media app, when she was about 14 years old. They corresponded for several years. On Feb. 23, 2024, the victim, who knew Mitchell had recently traveled from Memphis to St.
Louis, contacted him and asked her to pick him up from foster care. Within 30 minutes after finding out her location, Mitchell had an Uber pick her up and deliver her to a gas station in south St. Louis. He picked her up and took her to a casino hotel, where an associate took photos of her and posted them online.
The victim engaged in commercial sex acts at the casino hotel, gave the money to Mitchell’s associate, who gave the money to Mitchell.Mitchell’s trial was scheduled to start Wednesday. He is scheduled to be sentenced on October 21. The charge carries a sentence of 10 years to life in prison.The St. Louis County Police Department Special Investigations Unit and the FBI Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force investigated the case.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Dianna Edwards and Michael Hayes are prosecuting the case.This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Department of Justice Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims.
For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.