Crime & Safety

Pimp, Burglar Sentenced Following Woodbury Incidents

In February 2011 Darnell Steven Cox was charged with promoting prostitution; about a year later he was arrested in a burglary investigation.

A and was recently sentenced in Washington County District Court following two separate incidents in Woodbury.

In February 2011, Darnell Steven Cox, 21, of St. Paul, was hit with felony prostitution charges after he coerced a Woodbury woman into working for him as a prostitute through the online classified service Craigslist.

About a year later, Cox and another man were arrested in Woodbury on burglary charges.

Find out what's happening in Woodburywith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Now Cox has been sentenced on both counts.

On the charge of promoting prostitution, Cox got seven years of probation and 136 days in jail, along with other conditions. On the aiding and abetting burglary charge, he was sentenced to five years of probation, 73 days in jail and similar conditions.

Find out what's happening in Woodburywith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Prostitution

The woman who was involved in the prostitution case told police that she had not engaged in prostitution before meeting Cox and wanted to stop but was scared to, according to the criminal complaint.

She told police that she would ask Cox if she could stop and his typical response was, “This is money.”

Woodbury police tracked a phone number associated with the craigslist ads and found that it belonged to Cox, who would collect the money for the sexual acts, according to the complaint.

The woman was living at the 6700 block of Ashwood Road in Woodbury and was allegedly offering sexual services for money under the name “Ginger Babi,” according to the complaint. Police spoke with managers at the apartment building and discovered that men frequently visited the woman’s unit for short periods of time.

      

Burglary

In the burglary case, Cox and Danny Joe Beach, 40, of St. Paul, were seen by residents breaking into cars in an underground parking garage in the 1700 block of Century Circle.

They were arrested and charged with felony third-degree burglary after Woodbury police used witness statements and surveillance video to locate the duo's stolen Nissan Altima in the parking lot of Red Roof Inn.

One resident of the apartment building estimated the value of items stolen from his car to be in excess of $450, with an additional $300 in damages to the vehicle, according to the complaint.

During a post-arrest search of Cox, police found a plastic baggie that contained a substance later confirmed to be methamphetamine. 

Cox was not charged with a drug offense, but during the investigation Woodbury detectives did learn he was suspected in "multiple burglaries" that had taken place in the Century Circle parking garage.

     

 

Like us on Facebook | Follow us on Twitter | Sign up for our newsletter


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

To request removal of your name from an arrest report, submit these required items to arrestreports@patch.com.