Ohio Man Sentenced on Sex Trafficking Charges

St. Louis, MO – Kyle Maurice Parks was sentenced to 300 months in prison for his involvement in the transportation of four minors (ages 15-17) and two adults from Ohio to Missouri to engage in prostitution. The plan was to come to sell the girls on Backpage.com.

According to testimony at trial, Parks, two women and four minor females, including a runaway, left Columbus in a minivan on December 2, 2015, and arrived at the Red Roof Inn at Zumbehl Road and Interstate 70 in St. Charles, Missouri. The next day. Parks told them to rest, then woke them several hours later and told them to shower. He then told them to post ads on Backpage.com and that they would commit sex acts for cash. Some of the victims took calls and engaged in sex acts as a result of the ads, and Parks kept most of the money. Columbus police looking for the female runaway tracked her phone to the motel’s area and notified St. Charles police, who spotted the van and its Ohio temporary license tags. Police found most of the victims including the runaway in the motel rooms. Parks had left the motel with a 17-year old girl and later went to the police station to bail out one of the women. Officers arrested Parks and found a conscious but incoherent teen in the van.

Parks, 54, of Columbus, Ohio was convicted in January 2017 of one count of sex trafficking of a minor, two counts of attempted sex trafficking of a minor and six counts of interstate transportation with intent to commit prostitution. The four-day trial was held before United States District Court Judge John A. Ross.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Columbus, Ohio Police Department, the St. Charles City and County Police Departments, St. Louis County Police Department, the Ohio State Attorney General’s Office and the Social Security Administration OIG. Assistant United States Attorney Howard Marcus prosecuted the case for the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

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