A 41-year-old habitual offender who lured a 16-year-old to a motel using social media and then held her at gunpoint, beat and sexually assaulted her in 2021 agreed to two 25-year prison sentences this week, Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg announced.

“These kinds of predators are always looking for ways to hurt and take advantage of people,” Ogg said. “By making a plea agreement in this case, we can put him in prison for decades and spare the victim from having to testify about her ordeal.”

David St. John pleaded guilty Tuesday to sexual assault of a child between the age of 14 and 17 in exchange for the 25-year sentence. He also pleaded guilty to a charge of felon in possession of a weapon in exchange for a 25-year sentence, which will run concurrently.

As a condition of the plea agreement, St. John cannot appeal the conviction or the sentence. Because he used a deadly weapon, he must serve at least half of the prison sentence before he is eligible for parole. He must also register as a sex offender for life.

St. John used social media to find and start talking to the Houston teenager. He then lied to get her to agree to meet him on Jan. 21, 2021. Once the teenager was in his car, he took her to a motel in northwest Houston. When he got her in the motel room, he threatened her with a silver 9mm semi-automatic pistol and then beat her and sexually assaulted her.

Paramedics were called to the motel room for a welfare check and found the pair. St. John was combative toward the paramedics, leading to Harris County Sheriff’s Office deputies arriving and arresting him for sexual assault of a child and felon in possession of a firearm.

Assistant District Attorney Wesley Stafford, the prosecutor assigned to the DA’s Crimes Against Children Division who handled the case, said investigators did good police work in collecting and analyzing DNA at the scene to ensure that St. John was convicted.

“Thank God he is going to be in prison and that he will be off the street,” Stafford said. “And the fact that the victim will not have to testify and relive that trauma is the right result.”

###