ST. LOUIS – Two men from Tennessee appeared in federal court this week and admitted promoting prostitution of women in the St. Louis area. The guilty pleas come nearly a year after authorities broke up a sex trafficking operation inside a short-term rental home in Tower Grove East.

According to prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Missouri, Martavis Walker, 30, pleaded guilty on Monday to one count of interstate transportation for the purpose of prostitution.

Walker told the court he met a woman in Nashville in late December 2023, created online ads, and forced the victim to work as a prostitute in Memphis before taking the woman with him to St. Louis in January 2024.

Walker said he forced the woman to have sex for money in hotels and Airbnb rentals across St. Louis.

Walker's sentence on March 12 could result in up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

In a separate, unrelated case, Domaniko McCrary, 33, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to one count of interstate transportation for the purpose of prostitution. McCrary said he purchased a bus ticket for himself and the victim and that they traveled to the St. Louis area in April 2023. He rented hotel rooms so that the woman could engage in commercial sex acts.