Ava, MO. – The mother of two children in a child sex trafficking case has been sentenced to 28 years in prison.
Shawna Ross, age 50, took an Alford Plea of guilt on December 5, 2023, and was sentenced to 28 years in prison on February 6, 2024, by Judge R. Craig Carter in Wright County. The maximum possible sentence for the charge of sexual trafficking of a child under age 18 is 30 years.
An Alford Plea is, according to the Oxford Dictionary, a guilty plea in which a defendant maintains their innocence but admits that the prosecution’s evidence would likely result in a guilty verdict if brought to trial.
Ross is accused of trafficking her two girls, who were minors at the time, for sex with Harold Blair, who is being federally prosecuted, and the father of one of the girls, Robert Atherton, in 2010 and 2011. The probable cause statement alleges the girls had been subjected to being raped and sodomized repeatedly by the two men with Ross’ knowledge.
As part of Ross’ arrest, she was not to have any contact with the two children but, in February 2023, while she was being held in the Douglas County Jail, Ross contacted the children via another inmate’s phone. She initially received charges of tampering with a victim in a felony prosecution but these charges were later dropped.
