A Minneapolis man was sentenced to 40 years in prison Friday for bringing a 14-year-old girl and a 20-year-old woman to his accomplice’s Mahtomedi apartment where they were given drugs and sexually assaulted.
Billy Ray Wiley (Courtesy of the Washington County Sheriff’s Office)
A Washington County jury in November found 52-year-old Billy Ray Wiley guilty of two counts of sex trafficking and one count each of first- and third-degree criminal sexual conduct in connection with the June incidents, which led to a multi-agency investigation led by the East Metro Human Trafficking Task Force.
Jurors had answered yes to all four questions on a verdict form, allowing the prosecution to argue for an upward departure from state sentencing guidelines.
Judge Juanita Freeman gave Wiley, of Minneapolis, consecutive sentences on three of the counts, noting that there were multiple victims and that they were particularly vulnerable.
“The trauma that these young ladies experienced at Mr. Wiley’s hands is considerable,” Freeman said.
Wiley looked for women and girls in the Twin Cities area, often approaching them near grocery stores or in the street in Minneapolis and St. Paul, prosecutors said. He would offer them rides, drugs or money in exchange for sex before bringing them to an apartment in Mahtomedi.
A presentence psychosexual report concluded that Wiley has a “complete nonunderstanding of the power dynamics of exchanging drugs for sex with highly vulnerable minor females,” Assistant Washington County Attorney Scott Haldeman told the court. “And that’s what he did. He preyed on the most vulnerable victims.”
In January, co-defendant Michael Lewis, 69, was sentenced to 15 years of probation after pleading guilty to third-degree criminal sexual conduct in connection with assaulting the teen in June.
Teen was ‘clearly intoxicated’
According to the criminal complaints, officers were called to the Piccadilly Square Apartments, an age 62-plus housing community near Wildwood and Stillwater roads, on June 30 on a report of a teenager dancing in the parking lot and screaming, “No, no, no.” The person who called said an unknown man dropped her off about four hours earlier.
A man identified as Lewis stepped out the front door of the apartment building. The teen pointed to Lewis and said she was with him and one of his friends. Officers spoke with Lewis, who said he did not know the teen.
EMS took the teen to the hospital. East Metro Human Trafficking Task Force investigators met with her and asked how she knew the man who brought her to the apartment. She said he was a “friend,” who she referred to as “Billy,” and she said he often drove around her neighborhood.
Officers identified “Billy” as Wiley. Surveillance footage showed he arrived at the apartment, where Lewis lived, with the teen.
“Watching a child following a 52-year-old man into that apartment, and knowing what was going to happen to her … makes you sick to your stomach,” Haldeman said at sentencing.
Video later showed the teen run out of the building “clearly intoxicated,” the judge said, before handing down the sentence. “She is beside herself. She is yelling. She is screaming. She is not well kept. She doesn’t have underwear on.”
The teen told investigators in a follow-up interview several days later that “when Wiley picked her up, she knew she would be expected to engage in sexual acts in exchange for money and drugs,” the complaints said. She said Wiley had given her crack cocaine and brought her to the apartment, where she was sexually and physically assaulted by Wiley and the other man. She identified Lewis as the man inside the apartment after looking at a photo.
Michael Lewis (Courtesy of the Washington County Sheriff’s Office)
Earlier assault
Earlier, on June 13, a 20-year-old woman reported to St. Paul police that a man, later identified as Wiley, picked her up while she was waiting for a bus on Lake Street in Minneapolis. She said he brought her to an apartment, where he physically and sexually assaulted her.
After the assault, Wiley drove her to downtown St. Paul. Once she got out of the car, she asked people on the street for help and they flagged down an officer.
She told police Wiley recorded the sexual assault on his phone, and investigators later recovered the video and identified the location as Lewis’ apartment.
Law enforcement obtained a tracking warrant and arrested Wiley on July 8 when he drove by the Piccadilly apartments. Law enforcement also arrested Lewis, and drug paraphernalia was found in his apartment.
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A 17-year-old girl was in the car with Wiley. She said that earlier in the day, in the area of Dale Street and University Avenue in St. Paul, Wiley “pulled up right next to her and asked her what she needed. He then gave her a cigarette and asked if she wanted to go for a ride,” the complaints said.
She said they drove around for several hours, and he “told her that she was pretty and had a nice body,” the complaints said. She said she told Wiley several times to drop her off, but he kept driving.
The teen also told officers “that many girls who are struggling with addiction hang around Dale and University” and “said that Wiley is known to pick up a lot of girls in the area,” the complaints said.
Victims testified
Haldeman told the court that it “took a whole community” to stop the sex trafficking, starting with residents of the Mahtomedi apartment building reporting what they saw. They also testified at Wiley’s trial.
But the “most important acts of bravery,” Haldeman said, were the testimony of the two victims during Wiley’s trial, where he represented himself without an attorney.
“They walked down this aisle, sat in that chair and told us what happened to them,” Haldeman said, “knowing full well that Mr. Wiley sex trafficked them, sexually assaulted them, and eventually would cross-examine them.”
The victims “stared down” Wiley, Haldeman said, “and were the ones left standing.”
