Auburn man accused of trafficking 14-year-old girl to sex buyers at SeaTac motel

King County sheriff’s detectives have arrested an Auburn man accused of trafficking a 14-year-old girl for sex at a SeaTac motel and assaulting her when she tried to leave him.

Devante Clay Ransom, 28, is charged with human trafficking of a minor, promoting commercial sexual abuse of a minor, rape of a child and communication with a minor for immoral purposes, according to charging documents filed in King County Superior Court.

The investigation into Ransom began with a 911 call on April 3 from the Sleep Inn motel on International Boulevard in SeaTac. The victim, whom police later determined was 14 years old, told police she had been assaulted by her pimp, whom she knew as “Tay.”

The girl said Ransom attacked her when she attempted to leave the hotel.

“(Ransom) threw her across the floor, kicked her, attempted to punch her, threw a chair at her, knocked the television onto the floor, dumped water on her, and scattered her belongings,” wrote Braeleh McGinnis, a senior deputy prosecuting attorney. “After (Ransom) assaulted the victim, he made threats about how the victim was ‘a snitch’ and stated it was going to ‘be bad for that b----,’ referring to the 14-year-old child he exploited for his own profit.”

In interviews with police, the girl told detectives that Ransom was both her pimp and her “manager” and that she had been engaging in sex acts for money.

“She gave all of the money she earned to (Ransom), who managed the proceeds and preferred to be called a manager instead of a pimp,” the arrest report states.

The victim said she had also engaged in sex with Ransom on several occasions. She said she met him on Snapchat a week earlier.

Detectives looked into hotel records that showed Ransom had booked the room where the girl was found. Employees said he had also provided them with business cards for the car dealership where he worked in Auburn.

Police reviewed surveillance videos from the hotel and obtained footage showing Ransom and the victim checking into the hotel together four days earlier. Detectives allege the surveillance cameras recorded five men arriving at the hotel room at different times while the 14-year-old girl was there, with visits ranging from 15 minutes to an hour.

Police located online advertisements from the days prior that showed the victim and terminology associated with commercial sex, including “FaceTime verification,” “No Law Enforcement” and “No low ballers.”

The victim told police she would earn between $100 and $300 for the visits and gave half of the money to Ransom. She also said Ransom had taken her to Aurora Avenue in Seattle multiple times.

Earlier this month, King County Sheriff’s Office detectives arrested Ransom at the car dealership where he was working and booked him into jail, where he remains with bail set at $300,000.

“In TV shows and movies, these things get solved in 35 minutes or an hour, but the reality of it is these things take months and years,” Detective James Price told KOMO News.

Price said victims of sex trafficking are often lured with promises by pimps who then force the victims to engage in sex work.

“The promise of belonging, the promise of a luxury life, of gifts, that they are going to be able to give them the life of their dreams if they do this,” he said. “A lot of the girls that we do end up talking to are so scared that their trafficker is going to go after a family member of someone else they care about.”

A public defender asked a judge to release Ransom to electronic home monitoring, citing the delay between when police first investigated the case and when Ransom was charged.

“During that time, Mr. Ransom remained in South King County, went to work every day, supported his family, and secured a new apartment,” defense attorney Jacob Zerby wrote. “Keeping him in secure custody over a delayed filing [is] an immense hardship threatening to permanently unravel his employment and his ability to provide for his family.”

Ransom is scheduled to appear in court again in September.