The United States Attorney’s Office announced a life sentence for a man convicted of sex trafficking along the Gulf Coast – including significant activities in Destin and Walton Counties.
Chad Cornelius Seymore, also known as the “Circle City Pimp” trafficked an estimated 100 women in Destin, Walton County, Panama City Beach, Atlanta and his hometown of Dothan, Alabama.
Seymore’s accomplice, Kimberly Robinson Gandy, was also sentenced to 25 years in the case – that First Assistant United States Attorney Michelle Spaven said took more than a year to prepare and bring to trial.
Spaven noted that the hero in this case was an alert hotel clerk who called police in Panama City Beach after one of the victims escaped the hotel room .Seymore trafficked her in and came to the front desk to get help. “Panama City Beach Police Department officers responded when they got there,” Spaven explained, “Chad Seymour was still in the hotel parking lot. The hotel clerk also led the officers to the hotel room where the victim had been terrorized. Kim Gandy was in the process of leaving that room with a different victim. The hotel information provided important links to the overall conspiracy.”
Spaven also explained the vast geography that saw victims traffic In Florida, Georgia and Alabama was due to Seymore’s “greed and depravity extending out far beyond his home in Dothan, Alabama. It was just to the amount of his evil ways that extended what he forced people to endure in this portion of the country, which, to be honest with you, is a very small piece of the year-long investigation that we put together.”
US Attorney John Heekin said the pair, “conspired with others to bond adult women out of county jails and then forced or coerced them to commit commercial sex acts in Alabama and North Florida. Seymore recruited women suffering from drug addictions at hotels and through onlilne advertisements,” including backpage. Heekin added that Seymore and Gandy operated in Destin specifically where he threatened and abused the women he’d trafficked.
“We were able to show that through emails that had hotel confirmations, victim interviews and extensive digital evidence that was contained in Chad Seymour’s phone and his victim’s phones,” added Spaven.
Federal Agencies, including the FBI, Homeland Security, and the United States Marshal’s Service, worked with local agencies, including the Walton County Sheriff’s Office to make the case against Seymore.
Pro Communi Bono
St. Francis De Sales, Ora Pro Nobis!
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