A California man, known as Winston Cornell Burt but operating under the alias "Dice Capone," has been sentenced to 15 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to serious charges related to sex trafficking and firearms possession, his fate was decided in U.S. District Court in Seattle, with Acting U.S. Attorney Teal Luthy Miller announcing the sentencing decision, as reported by the U.S. Attorney's Office, Western District of Washington.
Dubbed a violent sex trafficker, Burt, 32, from Hemet, California, was captured by authorities on November 6, 2022, with his arrest coming on the heels of a tumultuous incident that involved a high-speed chase and a rolling gun battle after one of his victims sought a desperate escape from his grip, she was a 20-year-old woman reportedly beaten and forced to work for him. U.S. District Judge John H. Chun described the crimes as "outrageous conduct" wherein Burt treated his victims "terribly – and that is an understatement," said Acting U.S. Attorney Miller, as stated by the U.S. Attorney's Office, Western District of Washington.
This case illuminated the dark corridors of human commoditization where Burt reportedly tattooed his name on the faces of three women as a claim of "ownership," and enforced a ruthless regime demanding all money from the victims' forced prostitution, according to court documents. Burt's mercenary relishing of luxury sat juxtaposed against the backdrop of violence and coercion enlisted to maintain his illicit enterprise, the audaciousness of his actions on full display on November 2, 2022, when he violently assaulted a victim at an Airbnb in south Seattle because she expressed a desire to leave behind the life he'd forced upon her.
Even as that same victim, wearing only her underwear in frigid desperation, tried to escape his domain by leaping from a window and sprinting into traffic; Burt pursued her relentlessly, with gunshots echoing along the stretch of Aurora Avenue as she was rescued by a good Samaritan, the cruelty of the crime scene indicative of a person who treated others not as humans, but as assets to be seized and controlled at gunpoint. "Even after the victim took extreme measures to try to escape, including jumping from a third-story window, Mr. Burt cruelly chased, assaulted, and shot at her and the driver who stopped to help her," remarked W. Mike Herrington, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Seattle field office, with the case investigated by the FBI, Seattle Police Department, and assisted by the Washington State Patrol (WSP), as well as FBI Phoenix, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office, Western District of Washington.
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