Shannima Yuantrell Session, 47, also known as Shalamar, was sentenced to life in prison for sex trafficking nearly a dozen women and girls. A federal jury in the Southern District of Florida found Session guilty of 10 counts of sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion, and three counts of sex trafficking a minor. A restitution hearing is scheduled for April 17.
“Protecting victims of human trafficking and child exploitation is a top priority for the U.S. Attorney’s Office,” Acting U.S. Attorney Michael S. Davis for the Southern District of Florida said. “We are committed to aggressively combating these exploitative crimes that victimize the most vulnerable people in our society. Human beings are not commodities to be bought and sold, but rather demand our united protection.”
The FBI Miami Field Office’s Special Agent in Charge Jeffrey B. Veltri highlighted the collaborative efforts that led to Session’s conviction. “This substantial sentence reflects the egregious sexual exploitation committed by Session against numerous juveniles and women in Highlands County,” Veltri said. “It is a testament to the commitment of law enforcement agencies, including the Highlands County Sheriff’s Office and the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.”
Evidence from Session’s nine-day trial in September 2024 revealed he compelled victims to engage in commercial sex acts between July 2011 and July 2013 and from February 2016 to February 2019. Session lured victims by offering false promises of legitimate work and housing assistance. Many of the victims were struggling with substance abuse, neglect, or unstable living conditions.
Session manipulated victims’ vulnerabilities, using food and housing as leverage to control them. Testimony revealed he sometimes withheld food if victims failed to comply with his demands. Victims were often forced to have sexual encounters with Session after being exploited by multiple men in a single night.
The court heard accounts of extreme physical violence Session used to intimidate victims. He punched some in the back of the head to avoid visible injuries, dragged a victim into a shower and beat her with a metal object until she collapsed, and choked another victim until she lost consciousness. In one instance, he threatened to drown two victims by holding their heads underwater in a lake. Session also kept a firearm to further control and intimidate his victims, once pointing it at a victim in a car and threatening to kill her.
Session also exploited some victims’ substance abuse issues by supplying them with drugs, such as cocaine and methamphetamine, to ensure compliance and force weight loss.
The FBI Miami Field Office and its Ft. Pierce Resident Agency investigated the case with assistance from the Highlands County Sheriff’s Office. Assistant U.S. Attorney Justin Hoover and Trial Attorneys Leah Branch and Matthew Thiman of the Civil Rights Division’s Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit prosecuted the case.
Anyone with information about human trafficking is urged to contact the National Human Trafficking Hotline at 1-888-373-7888. The hotline is available 24/7. For more resources, visit www.humantraffickinghotline.org.
