Sex Trafficking Rapper Sentenced To 27 Years In Prison

CHICAGO — A north suburban rapper and gang member was sentenced to more than a quarter-century in prison last week for the sex trafficking of a 15-year-old Indiana girl. Prosecutors described him as a predator who physically and emotionally abused the teen, posting graphic online ads offering sex and pocketing all the money her prostitution generated.

Deronarte Norwood, 32, of North Chicago, has been in custody since his October 2016 arrest in Waukegan. A federal jury convicted him last March of attempting to transport a minor across state lines for prostitution. He was sentenced Thursday to 330 months, or 27½ years, in federal prison by U.S. District Judge Gary Fieinerman.

According to a March 21, 2015, incident report from the Winthrop Harbor Police Department, the victim in the case called police to notify them she was being held against her will at the La Villa Motel at 1401 Sheridan Road. Police found the girl at the hotel and learned Norwood was a member of the Black P-Stone Nation street gang. The girl told officers she met a man at a gas station in Indianapolis who asked if she "wanted to party and go see Chicago," according to the report. She initially would not tell investigators anything about him because he "had a family and children to support" and said she "feared for her safety and the safety of her family."

Prosecutors said Norwood beat the girl and "bragged about watching her smoke a crack-laced cigarette." He used the defunct online classified service Backpage to advertise the girl's exploitation, posting ads in April and May of 2015.

Though he had not served any prison time, prosecutors said he had shown a "blatant disrespect for the courts and the justice system, as evident by his criminal convictions and numerous revocations of probation."

According to Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicole Kim, Norwood drove the girl to various hotels, including one in Wisconsin, left her alone to have sex with strangers and then took all her money "so that she could not even buy food for herself." Prosecutors played audio of a recorded phone call from the Lake County Jail where he "bragged about his pimping 'a little white girl'" when he believed he had gotten away with the crime, Kim said in the government's sentencing memorandum.

The oldest of Norwood's five children is just two years younger than the victim in the case, according to prosecutors, who said it was difficult to believe his assertion that he was a good father "when he spent nearly a month taking a minor to various hotels in Northern Illinois and Wisconsin to sell her body to strange men for money."

He told the girl he loved her and promised her they would build a life together, according to Kim. The runaway teen had no home or family of her own and desperately wanted to feel loved, but he instead trafficked and terrorized her. The prosecutor noted the girl told staff at a trauma recovery program she believed he "cared for her more than other girls because he beat her with an open hand as opposed to a closed fist."

Norwood made between $15,000 and $20,000 annually from rapping, according to Kim. Prosecutors said he "apparently has some skills in making rap music," but chose to traffic a young girl into prostitution instead. When the girl tried to leave him, he persuaded her to be in his rap video, the memo said.

Prosecutors had asked for a 30-year sentence, and a pre-sentencing report recommended a sentence of 24⅓ years.

Norwood's lawyer asked for a sentence of 10 years in prison. In a sentencing memorandum last year, defense attorney Bart Beals wrote that Norwood had grown up in foster care and had a traumatic childhood. The victim in the case, he said, was a ward of the state in Indiana at the time of the offense. She lied to Norwood about her age, name and identity and never testified, and there was no evidence that he knew her age, according to the lawyer.

"Mr. Norwood committed a crime. Yes. He should be punished. Yes. However, he is essentially being punished and was convicted for a crime where the government was not required to prove the most important part of the crime. His knowledge," Beals said. "It is incredibly unfair to accuse Mr. Norwood of being a predator of underage victims without having to provide his knowledge or [intent] in relationship to knowledge of age."

Prosecutors said the girl "could not bring herself" to testify and be confronted in court by her abuser. Norwood refused to accept responsible for the crimes and told probation services that none of his conduct was inappropriate.

As a matter of policy, federal law enforcement officials do not provide photographs of those arrested and convicted.

Anyone with knowledge of the sexual exploitation of a child was asked to contact the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which can be reached 24 hours a day at 800-843-5678.