FORT SMITH -- Two men were sentenced in federal court Tuesday to prison terms after pleading guilty to charges involving prostitution, according to the U.S. attorney's office.
Shawn Casey Jobe, 44, of Fort Smith was sentenced to 41 months in prison after he pleaded guilty in April to one count of conspiracy to commit sex trafficking, a news release said. Edwin Jay Hesslen, 33, of Pocola, Okla., was sentenced to 37 months on a charge of use of a facility of interstate commerce in the aid of prostitution. He pleaded guilty in April.
Court records show Fort Smith police and the FBI were conducting an undercover sex trafficking investigation in June 2014 targeting persons using the Internet to advertise prostitution. They identified two ads for two different women on one site and an undercover police detective made a "date" with the women for $200.
The release said when the two women arrived at the Fort Smith hotel, the detective arrested them. The women described working for Jobe and said they saw him beat up another woman who worked for him.
One of the women agreed to cooperate and called Jobe, telling him a client was refusing to pay. Jobe showed up at the hotel and was arrested, the release said.
During the search of Jobe's phone, investigators discovered conversations between Jobe and Hesslen in which Hesslen sent photos of the two women who were to be used in their ads on the Internet prostitution site.
NW News on 09/27/2017