The Washoe County District Attorney’s Office has announced that a defendant convicted on attempted sex trafficking and abuse of a child charges has been sentenced to a maximum term in prison of 9 years.
Shamonte Benson-Young, age 24 from Fallon pled guilty last October to one count of Attempt to Facilitate Sex Trafficking of a Child and one count of Attempted Child Abuse or Neglect Involving Sexual Exploitation.
At the time of this most recent offense, Benson-Young was on parole for prior felony crimes of Residential Burglary with the Use of a Deadly Weapon and Conspiracy to Commit Robbery.
Benson-Young was arrested in April 2021 after an investigation by The Regional Human Exploitation and Trafficking Unit (HEAT) linked him to the soliciting of an undercover detective posing as a 16-year-old female.
During extensive communications with the detective, Benson-Young asked for explicit photos and video, as well as offering to set up sex for money ads and help facilitate prostitution.
On April 13, 2021, Benson-Young requested to meet with believed female and was arrested at an agreed upon location by HEAT detectives.
At sentencing, Deputy District Attorney Darcy Cameron argued that the defendant’s actions in encouraging and actually facilitating a child to both engage in prostitution as well as to create and post child pornography for the defendant’s own financial gain were truly abhorrent and a significant and lengthy prison term was necessary to protect the community from further victimization.
Judge Kathleen Drakulich ultimately sentenced the defendant to serve 108 months in prison with parole eligibility after 43 months.
(The Washoe County District Attorney assisted in this report.)
