Missouri Man Faces Sentencing In RI Teen Sex Case

Defense lawyers are seeking a 10-year prison sentence for a Missouri man who pleaded guilty to taking a teen from Massachusetts to a motel in Rhode Island to sell her for sex.

30-year-old Stephen Ardrey of Springfield, MO faces sentencing in U.S. District Court today on charges of trafficking a minor and transporting a minor to engage in sex.

Ardrey has acknowledged he met the 17-year-old girl online and took her from a library in Medfield, MA, to a motel in West Greenwich, RI in September. She was found in neighboring Coventry after someone saw them walking together.

Ardrey's lawyers argue in court documents that he deserves  the minimum possible sentence, in part because he witnessed his girlfriend's suicide when he was 16 and suffers from a mental illness.

[Associated Press]