Share This:

Houston Man Charged with Sex Trafficking of 13-year-old in Louisiana Faces Possible Life in Prison

Louisiana – U.S. Attorney Duane A. Evans announced that Randi Lewis, age 34, from Houston, Texas, was charged on January 28, 2022 by a federal grand jury in a five-count indictment with conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of a minor, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Sections 1594(c) and 1591(a) (Count 1), sex trafficking of a child under the age of 14, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1591(a) and 1591(b)(1) (Count 2), interstate transportation of a minor for purposes of unlawful sexual activity, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 2423(a) (Count 3), coercion and enticement of a minor to engage in illegal sexual activity, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 2422(b) (Count 4), and production of child sexual abuse material, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 2251(a) (Count 5), for his role in bringing a thirteen-year-old female from Houston to New Orleans for the purpose of her engaging in commercial sex acts in June 2021.

Lewis, according to the indictment, met his co-conspirator, a female born in 2003, in around 2019. Lewis recruited the female to perform commercial sex acts under his supervision, and she agreed. Lewis and his co-conspirator met the victim, who was thirteen years old at the time, in the Houston, Texas area on or before June 21, 2021. The co-conspirator recruited the victim to perform commercial sex acts under Lewis’s supervision. Soon after, she introduced Lewis to the victim.

Lewis arranged for him, his co-conspirator, and the victim to travel to New Orleans on a Greyhound bus in order for his co-conspirator and the victim to engage in commercial sex acts after the victim agreed. His co-conspirator and the victim performed multiple commercial sex acts in the New Orleans area between June 22, 2021 and June 24, 2021. Lewis created and caused advertisements to be created on an online classified ad service commonly used to advertise sexual services in exchange for money, through which Lewis received phone calls, text messages, and messages via social media applications inquiring about, scheduling, and arranging prostitution calls with his co-conspirator and the victim.

Lewis arranged for the victim’s sexually explicit images to be used in the advertisements. Lewis and his co-conspirator also administered illicit and mood-altering drugs, including marijuana, to the victim in order to numb her senses, control her behavior, and/or encourage her to engage in commercial sex acts. On June 24, 2021, law enforcement officers located the victim at a hotel in Terrytown, Louisiana.

If convicted on all counts, Lewis faces the following maximum sentence for each count: a maximum term of life in prison as to Count 1, mandatory minimum term of fifteen (15) years, and up to a maximum term of life as to Count 2, mandatory minimum term of ten (10) years and up to a maximum term of life as to each of Counts 3 and 4, and a mandatory minimum term of fifteen (15) years and up to a maximum term of thirty (30) years as to Count 5, a fine of up to $250,000.00, a lifetime of supervised release after imprisonment, and a mandatory $100 special assessment fee per count. Lewis may also be required to register as a sex offender.

U. S. Attorney Evans reiterated that an indictment is merely a charge and that the guilt of the defendant must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.

This case was filed as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched by the Department of Justice in May 2006 to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Project Safe Childhood, led by the United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, marshals federal, state, and local resources to find, apprehend and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc. For more information about internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab “resources.”

U.S. Attorney Evans praised the work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office in this matter. Assistant United States Attorney Jordan Ginsberg is in charge of the prosecution.