MEMPHIS - An 18-year-old from Knoxville was hoping to get high with a new friend; instead she was kidnapped, hauled to Memphis and forced into prostitution.
The alleged pimp, Charles "Chuck" Kizer, 52, kept a hatchet under his car seat in case the teen or others he controlled got out of line, according to federal charges. She told FBI agents Kizer threatened to use the hatchet to chop her head off.
Kizer is scheduled to go on trial Aug. 1 in federal court in Memphis, to face charges of commercial sex trafficking of the teen, and two women, by force, fraud or coercion, which can bring a prison sentence of 15 years to life.
Kizer has pleaded not guilty, said his attorney, Randy Alden, assistant federal public defender.
According to an affidavit from FBI Special Agent Michael Saltsman, Kizer showed the teen before-and-after photos of another prostitute, Kim Vaughn, 36 - before she died and was dumped near an Ohio rest stop, and after her body was placed in a casket. He threatened to put the teen in a casket if she tried to run.
Kizer liked to scare women by implying, or at times stating outright, that he was a murderer, women told the FBI. In reality, Vaughn's death was ruled an accidental drug overdose.
Vaughn's relatives told federal agents that Kizer prostituted her in Nashville, Knoxville and Ohio.
During the teen's two-week ordeal in August, she said she was raped by Kizer, beaten, threatened and forced out on the streets of West Memphis, Ark., and Memphis to sell her body. She told federal agents Kizer kept a gun, sleeping with it under his pillow.
At one point the teen got in touch with her mother, who pleaded in vain with the pimp to bring her daughter back to Knoxville, according to the allegations.
She was rescued by Memphis police Sept. 1 after Kizer left her alone with a cellphone so she could meet a john while he darted home to retrieve his gun, which he had forgotten.
She called 911 and police arrived just as Kizer returned, according to federal documents.
The FBI began investigating Kizer.
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