Baton Rouge man sex trafficked girls who ran away from state care, arrest documents say

A Baton Rouge man is accused of raping and sex trafficking two teenage girls who ran away from the custody of Louisiana’s child welfare system last month, arrest documents say. 

According to an affidavit, investigators with the Louisiana State Police Special Victims Unit first learned of the case when they were called to the scene of a hit-and-run accident that left two 16-year-olds injured. 

While speaking with the teens, officers learned they had run away from the Department of Children and Family Services on Feb. 24 and had been staying with an older man, identified as 29-year-old Chad Armstead, the affidavit says. 

One of the victims told police she had met Armstead on social media two months earlier after a friend posed as her online and Armstead reached out to the victim directly to tell her he had been “catfished,” the documents say. 

The girl explained that she met Armstead in person shortly after, during which he began to have sex with her, the document says; the victim later learned that Armstead had given her a sexually transmitted disease. 

After their first encounter, the girl told investigators that Armstead made her pose for photos that he posted on sex advertisement websites. She said he forced her to have intercourse with “many different men” for money on numerous occasions.

The first victim said men would call Armstead’s phone and he would tell her to “get ready, shower, and get the room ready,” the affidavit continues. The girl said Armstead would force her to have sex early in the mornings “like clockwork” when men were getting off work from “the plant.”

The girl said Armstead, who referred to himself as the teen’s “pimp”, would stand outside of their hotel room during these encounters to “ensure she was safe.” She told detectives he would keep 80% of the money she received, leaving her 20%.

According to the affidavit, most of the meetings took place at one of three locations: the Paradise Inn on Airline Highway, the Oyo Hotel on Gwenadale Ave. and Motel 6 on Rieger Road.