On Friday, June 9, 2023, Andre Michael Felts was sentenced to 25 years in federal prison with a lifetime of supervised release for sex trafficking of minors. Felts was the leader of a group of Philadelphia men who conspired to sex traffic minors, along with co-defendants Ryan Keel and Kevin Francis. The three men trafficked at least four minors ranging from 15 to 17 years old. According to a court order, all three jointly owe $235,000 in restitution to their victims.
In September 2020, we previously reported that all three men were arraigned and charged by a federal grand jury in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania with one count of conspiracy to sex traffic a minor, and Felts and Francis were also charged with four counts of sex trafficking a minor. The defendants conducted an elaborate conspiracy to sex traffic minors from 2016 to 2017. The defendants recruited the young victims and transported them to various locations for commercial sex. Keel and Francis allowed Felts to utilize their homes as venues for commercial sex in exchange for a portion of the proceeds. Felts also withheld a “significant portion” of the money paid to the victims and utilized platforms like “backpage.com” and Facebook Messenger to post advertisements and otherwise communicate about commercially sexually exploiting the victims.
In July of 2022, Kevin Michael Francis plead guilty to conspiracy to sex traffic a minor and aiding and assisting the sex trafficking of a minor. Francis was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison followed by 10 years of supervised release on July 27, 2022. Another co-defendant, Ryan Keel entered a guilty plea to conspiracy to sex traffic a minor on August 30, 2022. He was sentenced to 11 years and 3 months in federal prison with a subsequent 10 years of supervised release on May 31, 2023.
Under Federal law, a person is guilty of trafficking if they recruit, entice, harbor, transport, provide, obtain, advertise, maintain, patronize, or solicit a person for a commercial sex act. To be charged with sex trafficking of a child, the prosecution must only prove that the defendants engaged in soliciting, enticing, harboring, obtaining, patronizing, or transporting a minor who is or will be subject to sexual servitude. If the victim is a minor, the Government does not need to prove the defendant knew or recklessly disregarded the victim’s age. Under both Federal and State law, any commercial sexual exploitation of minors constitutes sex trafficking because children cannot consent to sex.
The Department of Justice brought this case under Project Safe Childhood, an initiative designed to combat child sexual exploitation and abuse. Project Safe Childhood launched in May 2006 and coordinates federal, state, and local resources to locate, arrest, and prosecute people who exploit children via the internet, as well as identify and support victims. The CSE Institute praises the Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the U.S. Attorneys for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania for their work to combat sex trafficking.
The CSE Institute will provide further updates on this matter.
All views expressed herein are personal to the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law or of Villanova University.