Little America is a census-designated place in Southwestern Wyoming, of approximately 29 residents, located in Sweetwater County, WY. Although the town is too small to have its own law enforcement agency, instances of prostitution and sex trafficking have still been documented in the area by officials from the Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Office. Among the more serious crimes associated with the local commercial sex market is child sex trafficking and targeted homicide of prostituted women. For example, in 2016, a male sex buyer stabbed two women, one fatally, at a Rock Springs hotel where he was allegedly there to engage in commercial sex with the women. The man was arrested and charged with first-degree felony murder for the slaying of one woman, as well as first-degree attempted murder for stabbing the second woman. The man found an advertisement offering “full service” for $300 at the hotel in Rock Springs. He arrived about 1 a.m. and went to the room the ad listed, and forced his way in and attacked the two women. As a result of this incident, officials in Sweetwater County have dedicated more resources to combatting commercial sex and its related crimes.

In effort to reduce demand for commercial sex in the area, sex buyers and sex traffickers have been arrested as the result of tips from residents to the SCSO. For example, in January 2018, a registered sex offender was charged with a single count of “transportation of minors with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity” in U.S. District Court in Cheyenne, after he allegedly transported two teenage girls across state lines for purposes of sex trafficking. According to reports, Sweetwater County Sheriff’s deputies arrested the man in Little America, west of Green River, WY, on Interstate 80 after receiving a report from a Little America employee about two girls in a restaurant hiding from a man. The two female juveniles (ages 12 and 14) were riding in a pickup traveling from Washington. They met the defendant at a Seattle, WA home improvement store, where they were asking for rides to their grandmother; the man said he would do so only if they would “be his sex partners.” During the ride, the girls accessed his phone and saw messages between him and a friend related to kidnapping a female. One of the girls told an investigator that the man’s Kik account stated he rapes people and belongs to a “gang banger” group. In October 2018, the offender pleaded guilty to the sex trafficking of minors charge and was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison (and 20 years of court supervision after his incarceration). The sex trafficker was also required to pay $5,000 to the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act, as an additional part of his sentencing.