Danny St. Louis sentenced to 15 years in prison for rape of 13-year-old girl who went missing

A Suffolk County judge sentenced a Bay Shore man who admitted last month that he raped a 13-year-old girl — and also got her addicted to crack cocaine — to 15 years in prison on Tuesday in Riverhead.

Danny St. Louis, 45, sexually abused the girl, whose 25-day disappearance made national headlines after her father found her aboard a dilapidated yacht in Islip, on three separate occasions, according to Suffolk County prosecutors.

"You did things to her that only a monster would do," the girl’s father, Frank Gervasi, said in a victim impact statement read by Assistant District Attorney Zachary Kelly. "I hope you rot in jail."

St. Louis declined to address the court before sentencing. He kept his head down throughout the entire hearing before state Supreme Court Justice Timothy Mazzei and did not look up or acknowledge Gervasi’s harsh words. His attorney, Ian Fitzgerald, of Islip, declined to discuss the sentence with reporters after the hearing.

St. Louis pleaded guilty on May 21 to three counts of second-degree rape, two counts of sex trafficking and one count of attempted sex trafficking. He had faced additional charges of drug possession and child pornography. Mazzei also sentenced St. Louis to 10 years of post-release supervision.

St. Louis began providing the girl — whose abuse Newsday detailed in its Unprotected series — with cocaine after he met her through a mutual acquaintance in early 2023, according to prosecutors. He started communicating regularly with the teen while sexually abusing her and getting her addicted to crack, prosecutors said.

A sweeping Suffolk County grand jury indictment resulted in felony charges for multiple defendants. The case generated headlines across the nation, and it raised concerns about the county and state's inability to protect the girl and the girl's home environment. 

Officers who stopped St. Louis’ vehicle in July 2023 because he was not wearing a seat belt found cocaine and four cellphones in his possession, including one that had three sexually explicit videos of the girl. That discovery prompted police to launch a human trafficking investigation.

Gervasi told police that St. Louis had given his daughter drugs, and that he had filed numerous police reports about their relationship, authorities said.

Gervasi told St. Louis to stay away from his daughter because she was just 13, the defendant told police.

The sexual abuse continued through October 2023, when the girl ran away from a residential drug treatment facility and was found by police in a hotel room with St. Louis.

St. Louis was charged at the time with endangering the welfare of a child and unlawful dealing with a child, both misdemeanors that were not bail eligible in New York State.

Separately, St. Louis was charged with trafficking two female adult victims between March 2023 and March 2024, advertising them as sex workers and providing them with crack cocaine and fentanyl to control their behavior.

One victim, a 20-year-old woman, told police that St. Louis and a co-defendant, Samantha Wimmer, kept her captive in a room at the Radisson Hotel in Hauppauge for more than two days in March 2024, hoping to traffic her. St. Louis and Wimmer gave the woman crack, according to authorities, and took her ID and phone to prevent her from leaving or refusing to have sex for St. Louis’ profit.

St. Louis raped her while Wimmer filmed, authorities said. The pair discussed the video being used as an advertisement for the young woman's services to sex buyers.

The 20-year-old woman escaped after two days to call her family, who reported the incident to police.

St. Louis and Wimmer were arrested after Wimmer offered sex and drugs to an undercover officer in exchange for money a week later.

Wimmer, who has pleaded not guilty to sex trafficking and other crimes, is scheduled to return to Mazzei’s courtroom July 14.