ST. LOUIS • A man from Houston was sentenced Monday to 11 years and 8 months in prison on four prostitution-related charges.

A jury in U.S. District Court in St. Louis found Thomas Thadeus “Enzo” Szczerba, 33, guilty in February of a conspiracy charge and three other charges that involved aiding prostitution.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer Winfield said that Szczerba was a pimp, who controlled the victim in the case. He paid out tens of thousands of dollars to promote prostitution on Backpage.cοm and for travel costs, she said, and kept all the money that the woman made.

Winfield read a letter from the woman, who wrote that she suffers night terrors, anxiety, depression, loss of sleep and paranoia and has struggled with thoughts of suicide since her experience. Winfield also played a 911 call in which the victim, while hiding behind a trash container at North Broadway and Lucas Avenue, begged for help from a 911 operator after running away from Szczerba. Prosecutors have said that Szczerba and his co-defendant, Keisha Edwards, befriended the woman in Houston before grooming her to work as a prostitute.