Missouri man who raped several underage girls he met on Snapchat gets 16 life sentences
(The AEGIS Alliance) – As per a press release, a 23-year-old St. Louis County, Missouri man named Dominic Yocco has been given a life imprisonment sentence for committing multiple counts of rape against underage girls in 2019 whom he met through online platforms like Snapchat. The victims were all under the age of 16.
According to the St. Louis County Police, Dominic Yocco turned himself in on September 11th, 2019. The following month, a grand jury indicted him on two counts of first-degree statutory rape, six counts of statutory sodomy, and two counts of child molestation.
In September 2022, Yocco was found guilty of nine counts of rape, six counts of sodomy, and one count of attempted sodomy. As per KSDK-TV, on January 26th, Yocco was handed 16 consecutive life sentences and will only be eligible for parole after 83 years.
According to charging documents, three of the victims were unconscious during the assault, and two of them were under 14. One of the victims during the trial stated that Yocco “exploited me during a vulnerable period of my life” and has been suffering from panic attacks since then.
The mother of one of the victims spoke in the trial and stated that her daughter had PTSD, depression, and anxiety after the rape, which ultimately led to her suicide. The victim was 13 years old when Yocco first made contact with her on Snapchat, as reported by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
At the trial, the mother of one of the victims said, “She was just a child who had not even experienced her first kiss. It broke my heart that I couldn’t fix it for her or protect her.” Another victim testified that they experience panic attacks that last for hours and said, “I will never forget how heinous Dominic is.”
Testimonies during the trial revealed that Yocco would frequently connect with his victims through social media, use alcohol to manipulate them, and sexually assault them at his grandmother’s residence, where he lived, as reported by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
During the sentencing, Yocco’s mother and grandmother were in attendance and made statements, as reported by KSDK. Yocco also spoke and stated, “I do not regret anything in life. I have learned a lot from what I’ve been through.”
St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell issued a statement to KTVI-TV stating, “A predator is now off the streets. Our goal is to give justice to victims and to keep the public safe. By collaborating with our law enforcement partners and trial staff, we were able to achieve this outcome.”
Kyle James Lee – The AEGIS Alliance – This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
