Shatara Armstrong, Child Sex Trafficking, Texas 2017

Fort Worth Woman Pleads Guilty in Child Sex Trafficking Case

DALLAS — Shatara Armstrong, 31, of Fort Worth, Texas, pleaded guilty today before U.S. Magistrate Judge Paul D. Stickney, to one count of use of a facility of interstate commerce in aid of a racketeering enterprise, announced U.S. Attorney John Parker of the Northern District of Texas.

Armstrong faces a maximum penalty of five years imprisonment and a $250,000 fine. Armstrong will remain on bond pending sentencing which is set for November 1, 2017.

In May 2017 a federal grand jury in Dallas returned an indictment charging Armstrong along with Marquist Fulcher, aka “Keezie,” 28, Chapoleon Fischer, aka “Kidd,” 28, Marcus Speed, 26, and Tiffany Gideon, 22 with conspiracy to engage in child sex trafficking.

According to plea documents filed in Armstrong’s case, beginning in approximately 2014, Fulcher began acting as a pimp over several young girls and women. He facilitated the commercial sex acts of: fourteen year old Jane Doe 1, seventeen year old Jane Doe 2, and seventeen year old Jane Doe 4, among others.

Fulcher and Armstrong worked with other pimps, including Speed and Fischer, as part of their prostitution enterprise. The organization recruited victims in various ways, including finding them on the internet. Members of the group would trade girls amongst themselves as well. Some of the victims were recruited from the Dallas area, including sixteen year old Jane Doe 3.

The pimps in this organization often used violence and threats of violence as a means to control the victims. Fulcher was often violent towards Armstrong in front of the girls that were working for him. This violence was meant to send a message to the others about what would happen to them if they did not do what Fulcher asked.

The Fort Worth Police Department and U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), both members of the North Texas Trafficking Taskforce, investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Cara Foos Pierce and Myria Boehm are in charge of the prosecution.