A 13-year-old girl in Miami, Florida runs away to escape a turbulent home life, she meets a man at the USA Flea Market in Miami, he lures her to a motel room, drugs her up, and forces her into prostitution. It sounds like the plot of an after-school special. Unfortunately, it’s a story plucked from the news.
The story gets worse. When the thirteen-year-old, nicknamed Sparkle, threatened to run away from her pimp, Suave (Roman Thomas III), he and a female accomplice (Shanteria Sanders) took the teen back to the USA Miami Flea Market and had her eyelids tattooed. “Sauve” was marked on the girl’s right eyelid and “House” on her left eyelid.
Thirteen years old and this girl runs away to escape a difficult home life, is coerced into prostitution, drugged, and branded. Unbelievable! Unfathomable! The young girl’s mother somehow tracked her down and led police to her pimp.
Thomas was already serving a five year probation when he was taken into custody by Miami police. This guy had served four years in prison for having sex with a minor and was released with a GPS monitor strapped to his ankle. On March 10, police received a warning that the monitor had been removed. That was two days before this poor excuse for a human being met Sparkle.
Thomas and Sanders (his accomplice) face charges of human trafficking, false imprisonment, lewd and lascivious exhibition, and delivery of a controlled substance to a child. Sparkle is receiving therapy from Project GOLD, which helps children deal with the emotional, physical, psychological, and spiritual repercussions of being sexually abused.
