Bay Shore Man Sex Trafficked Women, Raped Child: DA

BAY SHORE, NY — A Bay Shore man was sentenced Tuesday to 15 years in prison after pleading guilty to rape and sex trafficking charges tied to the sexual exploitation of multiple female victims, including a 13-year-old child, Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said.

Danny St. Louis, 45, was sentenced to 15 years in prison followed by 10 years of post-release supervision, prosecutors said. He will also be required to register as a sex offender.

According to court documents and St. Louis’ admissions during his guilty plea, he met a 13-year-old child in early 2023 through a mutual acquaintance and provided her with cocaine, prosecutors said.

St. Louis began communicating with the child regularly and sexually abused her on three separate occasions, prosecutors said. During that time, he introduced the child to crack cocaine, causing her to become addicted, prosecutors said.

The abuse continued until Oct. 8, 2023, when police found the child in a hotel room with St. Louis after she had run away from a residential drug treatment facility, prosecutors said.

Between March 2023 and March 2024, St. Louis also acted with the intent to advance or profit from the prostitution of two additional victims and profited from their prostitution by providing them with drugs as a method of control, prosecutors said.

St. Louis arranged for a fourth victim, a 20-year-old woman, to meet him on March 3, 2024, at a Hauppauge hotel where he was staying, prosecutors said.

He provided the woman with crack cocaine and stayed with her in the hotel room for two days, prompting her family to file a missing person report, prosecutors said.

At one point, St. Louis accused the woman of stealing crack cocaine from him and forced her to undress, shower and have sex with him to repay the supposed debt, prosecutors said. The sexual conduct was filmed, and St. Louis discussed a plan to use the video as an advertisement to sell the victim to sex buyers, prosecutors said.

The woman escaped from the hotel on March 5, 2024 and called her family, prosecutors said.

St. Louis was arrested on March 14, 2024, after he agreed to provide a buyer with sex from one of the trafficked victims, as well as drugs, in exchange for money, prosecutors said.

St. Louis pleaded guilty on May 21, before Supreme Court Justice Timothy Mazzei, to three counts of second-degree rape, two counts of sex trafficking and one count of attempted sex trafficking, prosecutors said.

“If you prey on vulnerable women and children in Suffolk County, you will be investigated, prosecuted, and held accountable,” Tierney said. “This defendant will now spend many years in prison, unable to harm another victim.”

Anyone who suspects human trafficking activity can contact the Suffolk County District Attorney’s HEAT Unit.