A man who ran a sex trafficking operation out of a Champaign motel room will spend the rest of his life behind bars for the crime.
Federal Judge James Shadid sentenced 48-year-old Franshon Stapleton on Friday to four life sentences for trafficking women from Champaign, Peoria and Sangamon counties. Shadid stated that a sentence of anything less than a life sentence would ignore the nature of the offense, the impact to the victims, the defendant’s lack of remorse, his prior criminal history, and the sentencing guidelines.
Prosecutors described the degradation and manipulation Stapleton used in 2017 and 2018, to exploit desperate young women, who were fighting drug addiction and homelessness, to force them to perform sex acts for money. Stapleton arranged the encounters, set the price, and collected the money. He then used violence and threats of violence to force them to engage in sex with other men. Stapleton exploited his victims’ desperation as he ensured the women were ‘indebted’ to him for the motel rooms, drugs, and food he provided.
U.S. Attorney John Milhiser commended the strength of the victims who provided critical evidence against the defendant and recognized the sustained efforts by federal and local law enforcement to locate, investigate and prosecute dangerous predators and remove them from the community.
Stapleton pleaded guilty to all the charges against him on September 28th as his trial was set to begin. He has been in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service since his arrest on the charges in May 2018.
