Man pleads guilty to dismembering sex trafficking victims before storing head, hands and feet in freezer

Somorie Moses, the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of New York The well-known actor, also known as “Sugar Bear” and “Daddy,” pleaded guilty last Friday to sex trafficking of eight women and the murder of one of them, Leondra Foster, in 2017.

Moses had previously denied killing Foster in a criminal case in New York state and was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter and hiding a corpse in 2019. In 2022, however He was charged in federal court in the same case – prosecutors became the first person to use federal law that criminalizes sex trafficking murder.

Moses now faces a mandatory 15 years in prison and possibly life in prison.

According to a press release Prosecutors say, citing court documents and admissions, that Moses “forced women and girls, including minors, into prostitution for his benefit, using violence, threats of violence and psychological manipulation.” Prosecutors say he had “false Promises of love and marriage” to build relationships with the women before “demanding that they work as prostitutes and hand over the money they earned”. He also reportedly “pressured many of his victims to have his first name tattooed on their bodies.”

One of his victims was Foster, who was murdered on January 13, 2017. According to prosecutors, Moses dismembered her body with a knife and saw before disposing of her limbs and torso in a landfill days later.

When he was arrested by law enforcement, Foster’s head, hands and feet – including one with the tattoo “Somorie” – were found in his freezer.

“Moses used brutal beatings, rape, torture and threats to force his victims to work in prostitution in Brooklyn and Queens. When a victim, identified in today’s guilty plea proceedings as Jane Doe 1, refused to engage in prostitution, Moses used a stun gun on her until she complied,” the release said. “Another victim, identified as Jane Doe 2, was slashed on her arms and back with a razor by Moses. Moses also beat her with a belt before pouring lemon juice on her wounds, leaving them with permanent scars.”

According to the news release, Moses put a shotgun in another victim’s mouth and threatened to kill her child when she told him she “didn’t want to work as a prostitute.”

“With today’s guilty plea on all counts, Moses is held fully responsible for exploiting women and girls, forcing them to become prostitutes, and then brutally murdering and dismembering one of his many victims,” ​​said U.S. Attorney Breon Peace statement. “Although the defendant’s full admission of guilt cannot undo the terrible harm he has caused, we hope it will provide some measure of relief to his victims who suffered from the defendant’s extreme cruelty and brutality, and to Ms. Foster’s family brings peace.”