TACOMA — A woman was brutally beaten inside a Seattle Airbnb when she wanted to stop working for a “violent pimp,” who was sentenced to federal prison after being convicted of forcibly sex trafficking her and other women in the western U.S., prosecutors said.
Winston Cornell Burt, a 32-year-old California resident also known as “Dice Capone,” chased after the woman when she jumped out of the Airbnb’s third-story window to escape him on Nov. 5, 2022, according to prosecutors.
She begged nearby drivers for help, but two women working for Burt grabbed her and forced her into his car, prosecutors said. Inside his vehicle, Burt was armed and repeatedly threatened to shoot her, according to court documents.
Then she fled Burt a second time, escaping his car and running into traffic on Aurora Avenue, where an Uber driver saw her and told her to get in his vehicle, prosecutors wrote in court filings.
The driver, who previously met the woman in the area, drove off as Burt followed, leading to a gun battle in the streets of Seattle, according to prosecutors.
Burt shot at the woman and the Uber driver, who was armed and fired back at Burt, prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memorandum.
“A running exchange of gunfire occurred until the vehicles drove southbound on I-5,” prosecutors said.
The driver successfully avoided Burt’s gunfire and called the Washington State Patrol, according to prosecutors, who said the woman was then rescued and taken to a local hospital.
Burt was arrested Nov. 6, 2022, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Washington.
Now, a judge has sentenced Burt, of Hemet, to 15 years in prison on two federal sex trafficking-related felonies, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a news release issued March 10, when Burt’s sentencing hearing was held.
In October, Burt pleaded guilty to sex trafficking through force, fraud, and coercion, and unlawful possession of firearms, prosecutors said.
His defense attorney, Peter A. Camiel, didn’t immediately return McClatchy News’ request for comment March 11.
The woman who escaped Burt phoned in during his sentencing hearing, according to prosecutors.
Burt “gets a thrill from violence and hurting people,” she said over the phone. “I was one of the lucky ones who got away.”
The sex trafficking operation
Burt, a self-identified “pimp,” sex trafficked women through California, including in San Diego, Arizona and Washington, and used violence to control them, according to prosecutors. Hemet, where he’s from, is about an 85-mile drive southeast from Los Angeles.
Burt had the women give him all the money they made through prostitution and expected them to earn at least $2,000 a day, prosecutors said.
Three of them, including the woman who escaped, “had his name tattooed on their faces” as a sign of “ownership,” according to prosecutors.
The woman initially met Burt in 2021 at a party in California, where he tried to recruit her as a sex worker, prosecutors wrote in court documents.
Afterward, they communicated with each other through text messages and social media, according to prosecutors.
In 2022, after she agreed to work for him, Burt picked her up and took her to an Airbnb in California, where he was staying with two other women, prosecutors said.
After about a “week or so,” Burt told the women “they needed to start making money through commercial sex,” prosecutors wrote in court documents.
She saw Burt use physical and verbal abuse against the other two women, who she learned were ordered by him to assault another woman who “previously worked for him and then left him,” prosecutors wrote in the sentencing memorandum.
“Burt also told (her) that if she ever left him, he would break her face,” the filing says.
At a certain point, the woman no longer wanted to work for Burt and asked a friend to pick her up from San Diego, according to prosecutors.
After she left, she received threatening text messages from Burt, prosecutors said.
The woman then saw that Burt started an Instagram “live” video and watched as he recorded himself, flashing two guns and asking viewers “which one should I use on her,” according to prosecutors.
The woman believed Burt was talking about her and returned to him out of fear, prosecutors said.
‘Complete lack of respect for women’
In October 2022, Burt brought the woman to Seattle with the other women, according to prosecutors. There, he rented an Airbnb, prosecutors said.
On Nov. 2, 2022, she told Burt she wanted to stop working for him, prosecutors said.
In response, Burt punched and pistol-whipped her, kicked her in her face and ribs, and warned he’d knock her teeth out, according to prosecutors.
He told the other women at the Airbnb to join in on the beating, prosecutors said.
The woman was left bruised with two black eyes, a swollen lip and had her nails ripped off, according to prosecutors.
Three days later, Burt beat her again inside the Airbnb and made her “strip to her underwear,” prosecutors said.
That’s when she jumped out the window of the Airbnb and escaped, before she was picked up by the Uber driver, according to prosecutors.
The next day, Burt was arrested while trying to leave the Airbnb, prosecutors said.
Inside his car, police found more than $41,000 and a gun, according to prosecutors. He was also wearing a $29,000 diamond necklace and a watch valued at $85,000, they said.
“Throughout his adult life, Burt has exhibited nothing other than disregard for the law and a complete lack of respect for women,” Acting U.S. Attorney Teal Luthy Miller said in a statement.
Burt’s federal sentence will be served concurrently with his state sentence in King County, according to prosecutors. In King County Superior Court, Burt was sentenced to 14 years and eight months in prison, after prosecutors said he pleaded guilty to three counts of second-degree assault, drive-by shooting unlawful imprisonment and third-degree assault.
If you or someone you know is in immediate danger, please call 911.
To report potential trafficking situations, you can contact the national hotline at 1-888-373-7888 or chat with the online hotline.
