Pennsylvania man pleads to sex-trafficking 4 Ohio runaways

PITTSBURGH (AP) — A Pennsylvania man pleaded guilty today to sex trafficking four teenage runaways from Ohio who were found in his car – along with 8,000 individual dose bags of heroin – during a traffic stop last year.

Robert Middlebrook, 41, of Clairton, will likely face an agreed-upon 12-year federal prison sentence when he returns to court in Pittsburgh on May 9.

Middlebrook's co-defendant, Kiari Day, 26, of Rankin, pleaded guilty in November to helping Middlebrook by teaching the girls how to interact with "johns" and helping post online prostitution ads. She'll be sentenced in December.

Day and Middlebrook were indicted in August after federal authorities took over what began as a state police traffic stop in Lower Paxton Township, near Harrisburg, on Feb. 17.

Middlebrook was on probation for heroin possession when troopers charged him with drug offenses and trafficking in minors —three of the girls were 17, one was 16. But those charges were dropped after federal investigators took over the case as part of an emphasis on human trafficking started two years ago by U.S. Attorney David Hickton in Pittsburgh.

Today, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jessica Lieber Smolar told U.S. District Judge Arthur Schwab that Middlebrook and Day brought the girls to Pennsylvania.