Robert Ryan Powell Gets 16+ Years for Sex Trafficking

A 34-year-old former Las Vegas man, ROBERT RYAN POWELL, was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Seattle to 198 months in prison and ten years of supervised release for sex trafficking minors and adult women across multiple western states. POWELL was convicted after a seven-day trial in June 2016 on two counts of transportation of a juvenile with intent to engage in prostitution and one count of sex trafficking an adult victim by force, fraud, and coercion.

U.S. District Judge Richard A. Jones delivered a scathing rebuke at sentencing, stating, “You were a predator of young women, whether teenagers or adults…. Pimping was your chosen lifestyle…. Today you ask for compassion when you failed to demonstrate any compassion for your victims.” The judge’s words echoed the brutality and manipulation that defined POWELL’s criminal enterprise.

Between January 2014 and January 2015, POWELL used physical violence, emotional abuse, and psychological control to force an adult woman into prostitution, dragging her across Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Colorado, South Dakota, Idaho, and Washington. She was required to hand over all her earnings, living under constant fear and domination.

In August 2014, POWELL escalated his crimes by recruiting two juveniles in the Seattle area. He transported them to San Jose, California, where he forced them into commercial sex work, advertising their services and pocketing their income. He abandoned them in California, where law enforcement recovered the girls. POWELL was later arrested in Rapid City, South Dakota, while actively sex trafficking two adult women.

POWELL used Backpage.com to advertise his adult victims and leveraged social media platforms to recruit others into his exploitation network. His criminal pattern relied on deception, intimidation, and the commodification of vulnerable women and girls. His prior record includes a 2007 conviction for Attempted Pandering in Clark County, Nevada, and a 2009 Assault with a Deadly Weapon conviction in Orange County, California.

The investigation was led by the Seattle Police Department and the FBI’s Child Exploitation Task Force, with critical support from the San Jose Police Department, Rapid City Police Department, South Dakota Criminal Investigations Division, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, Orange Police Department, and the Los Angeles Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kate Crisham and Amy Jaquette prosecuted the case. A restitution hearing is scheduled for January 2017 to determine the financial compensation owed to POWELL’s victims.