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Thread: Randy Jonal Schenck is charged for drugged sex robbery scheme in several states and the 2017 death of Shawn Arthur, (40) in Louisiana

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    Randy Jonal Schenck is charged for drugged sex robbery scheme in several states and the 2017 death of Shawn Arthur, (40) in Louisiana

    https://fox40.com/news/california-co...everal-states/

    NEW ORLEANS (AP) ? A New Orleans man is accused of prostituting his girlfriend in a number of states and making her drug and rob men, including one who died.

    Arraignment is scheduled Tuesday for Randy Jonal Schenck, who is accused in a federal indictment of posting sex ads with the woman?s photo in places that include California, Louisiana, New Mexico, Texas, Arizona, Tennessee, and Georgia. Some of those ads ?were explicitly commercial,? according to the indictment. Schenck?s arraignment is scheduled for Tuesday.

    The two met in early 2013, and Schenck made the woman prostitute herself from at least October 2013 until September 2017, when they were arrested in Sandy Springs, Georgia, according to the indictment.

    Schenck, also known as ?RuRu? and ?Shaq,? was indicted earlier this month on charges of sex trafficking by coercion; transporting someone for prostitution; using an interstate facility for illegal activity, which involved posting ads for paid sex on websites or an app; wire fraud for using the debit card of the man who died; and aggravated theft of the man?s identity. Penalties range from 15 years to life if he is convicted on all charges.

    His court-appointed attorney, Arthur Lemann III, did not respond to an email and call Thursday requesting comment.

    The man who died is identified only by the initials S.A. in the indictment handed up Feb. 7 and in a sworn statement filed with the woman?s guilty plea in December on charges of identity theft and conspiracy. News accounts have identified him as Shawn Arthur, 40, of suburban Metairie, whose body was found when Jefferson Parish sheriff?s deputies made a wellness check Feb. 25, 2017.

    That was the day after the woman met with ?S.A.? and drugged his drink, according to court documents. She has pleaded guilty to aggravated identity theft and conspiracy and agreed to a seven-year sentence. Although she has been identified in court documents and news reports, The Associated Press is withholding her name as a victim of an alleged sex crime.

    Arthur?s father, Bob Arthur, was glad the federal government filed charges but questioned why the local district attorney had not.

    The charges against Schenck and the woman do not ?deal with the loss of life,? Bob Arthur said in a statement to The Times-Picayune / The New Orleans Advocate. ?Whether intentional or not, our son Shawn Arthur died while a felony was being committed in his apartment. ? According to Louisiana law, that is murder.?

    The District Attorney?s Office declined comment, the newspaper reported.

    The Jefferson Parish Coroner?s Office originally classified Arthur?s death as accidental but changed it to ?unclassified? soon after the Huffington Post published an article about the case.

    The woman?s sworn statement said Schenck convinced her to work as an escort but about two months later coerced her ? partly by promising to help her get custody of her children ? into a ?prostitution-based criminal operation.? That ?evolved? into spiking the drinks of victims and steal from them, she said. Schenck controlled her by threatening, slapping, beating and choking her and threatening to hurt or have someone else hurt her relatives, according to the statement.

    The indictment against Schenck accuses him of posting ads on the now-defunct website ?Backpage.com? in Tucson and Phoenix, Arizona; Los Angeles and Bakersfield, California, and Albuquerque, New Mexico; and of using the social media app ?Meet Me? to ?meet and thereafter schedule interaction with S.A.?

    Schenck and the woman used S.A.?s debit card at a Walmart and a Discount City market and gas station, according to the indictment. He drove her from Louisiana to Georgia and to Arizona for prostitution.

    The indictment?s descriptions of specific offenses do not mention Texas or Tennessee. The woman?s statement describes a victim in Houston.

    That statement also says Schenck and the woman were arrested at a Georgia hotel after a victim ? from whom a safe, a Jeep Grand Cherokee, multiple smartphones and a laptop computer had been stolen ? used ?Find My iPhone? and located one of his phones there.

    At the time of arrest, the woman ?was bleeding from her nose, had a swollen lip and puncture consistent with her teeth biting through her lip, and a substance consistent with black electrical tape around one of her arms,? the indictment said.

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    https://www.nola.com/news/courts/art...2f0a592d7.html

    A woman accused of drugging and robbing prostitution dates, whose cross-country scheme was unraveled by the family of a Metairie man who died after their encounter, has pleaded guilty under an agreement to receive a seven-year sentence.

    Dominique Berry, 30, entered a guilty plea Thursday to charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and aggravated identity theft before U.S. District Judge Eldon Fallon.

    Under her deal with U.S. Attorney Peter Strasser's office, Berry agreed to receive the maximum sentence on those counts. But federal prosecutors agreed not to pursue other charges against the Kentwood woman.

    According to a lengthy admission filed in federal court, Berry and her boyfriend Randy "Ru-Ru" Schenck committed at least 50 robberies across the United States between 2015 and 2017. Prosecutors said the robberies began with advertisements for “prostitution services or companionship.”

    The meetings happened in Louisiana, California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and Georgia. Berry would incapacitate the men with powerful drugs slipped into their drinks, then steal their cash, cellphones, jewelry and expensive watches.

    Prosecutors said the scam netted hundreds or even thousands of dollars each time. But it ultimately resulted in the death of 40-year-old Shawn Arthur, a Missouri native found dead inside his apartment in Metairie in February 2017.

    According to court records, Berry was also a victim, however. Investigators believe Schenck threatened, slapped, beat and choked her in order to control her.

    The couple's crime spree began to come to an end on Sept. 13, 2017, when a Georgia man who fell victim to the scheme used a "Find my iPhone" app to track his missing phone to a hotel in Sandy Springs, Georgia.

    Law enforcement found Berry and Schenck there. Berry was bleeding from her nose and had a swollen lip. Police also found items belonging to the Georgia man. However, the extent of the conspiracy and identity theft scheme was not initially revealed.
    The Jefferson Parish Coroner's Office had initially ruled Arthur's death "accidental," but it changed the manner of his death to "undetermined" after a private investigator hired by Arthur's family interviewed Berry in a Georgia jail. She confessed to lacing Arthur's drink with powerful drugs but claimed she didn't know he had died.

    Berry met Arthur on social media on Feb. 24, 2017, according to court records. His body was discovered in his home the next day.

    Fallon is set to sentence Berry on March 19. He has the power to change her agreed-upon sentence, but if he does, either she or the government could tear up the plea agreement.

    Meanwhile, Schenck faces federal charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, transportation with intent to commit prostitution and sex trafficking by force.

    Editor's Note: This article was updated on Jan. 4, 2020 to clarify the nature of the alleged scheme.

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