Danny St. Louis, of Bay Shore, pleads guilty to sex trafficking, raping victim in missing girl case

A Bay Shore man pleaded guilty Thursday to raping a 13-year-old girl that he deliberately got addicted to crack cocaine in the months before her 25-day disappearance made national headlines after the girl's father found her aboard a dilapidated yacht in Islip, Suffolk County prosecutors announced Thursday.

Danny St. Louis, 45, of Bay Shore, also pleaded to trafficking two adult women and attempting to do the same with a third, while sexually abusing the young girl on three separate occasions, prosecutors said.

"Among this defendant’s victims was a 13-year-old child whom he deliberately got addicted to drugs before repeatedly raping and exploiting her," Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said in a statement. "No sentence can undo that harm, but today’s plea ensures he will be held accountable and that he cannot victimize anyone else for years to come."

St. Louis pleaded guilty in Suffolk County Criminal Court in Riverhead 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.

Supreme Court Justice Timothy P. Mazzei is expected to sentence St. Louis — who was originally scheduled for a May 27 court appearance — to 15 years in prison and 10 years of post-release supervision on June 23.

Ian Fitzgerald, St. Louis' Islip-based defense attorney, declined to comment on the guilty plea but said his client, who previously told police he "had feelings" for the 13-year-old, never trafficked her. St. Louis, who is more than three times the girl's age, went by the nickname "Ace."

St. Louis met the girl — whose abuse and disappearance Newsday covered in its Unprotected series — through a mutual acquaintance in early 2023 and began providing her with cocaine, prosecutors said.

He then began communicating with the child regularly and began sexually abusing her, while simultaneously getting her addicted to crack, authorities said.

When police stopped St. Louis' vehicle on July 15, 2023, for not wearing a seat belt, authorities found cocaine and four cellphones in his possession, one of which had three sexually explicit videos of the girl.

Suffolk County police responded by opening a human trafficking investigation.

The girl's father, Frank Gervasi, told St. Louis to stay away from his daughter because she was just 13, the defendant told police.

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

"Worry about your own [expletive]," St. Louis said when the father confronted him by phone about contacting his daughter, Newsday previously reported.

The abuse continued through October after the girl ran away from a residential drug treatment facility and was found by police in a hotel room with St. Louis on Oct. 8, 2024, prosecutors said.

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

A 20-year-old woman reported that St. Louis kept her in a room at the Radisson Hotel in Hauppauge, where he and a co-defendant, Samantha Wimmer, had been staying.

The two were allegedly giving the woman crack cocaine and held her captive for more than two days in hopes of trafficking her in March 2024, prosecutors said.

St. Louis also took that victim’s identification and phone to prevent her from leaving or refusing to have sex for his profit, authorities said.

At one point, St. Louis accused the woman of stealing crack from him. He stripped her down, made her shower and then allegedly 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, prosecutors said.

After two days, the 20-year-old woman escaped 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, whose case is still pending, is due back in court June 11.