'Vampire trucker' who kept women as sex slaves on his 'Twilight Express' semitrailer gets 20 years a
Trucked sentenced: Timothy Jay Vafeades, a Utah trucker who pleaded guilty to keeping women as sex slaves in his semi-trailer as he drove across the country, was sentenced Wednesday to 20 years in prison
A Utah truck driver who pleaded guilty to keeping women as sex slaves in his semi-trailer dubbed the 'Twilight Express' as he drove across the country was sentenced Wednesday to 20 years in prison.
Timothy Jay Vafeades, 56, nicknamed the 'vampire trucker,' sexually assaulted and brutally beat the victims almost daily after trapping them in his truck and forcibly grinding down their teeth, federal prosecutors said.
One woman told a judge that her months-long ordeal began when she got into his truck to go to dinner with him. She started to worry when realized they weren't going toward any restaurants.
'He then said, "I got you now. You are mine,"' she said. The vampire-obsessed truck driver controlled nearly every aspect of her life, including how she used the bathroom, she said.
The woman, known as Victim B, told the court: 'I feel fortunate I can actually speak today,' adding that Vafeades raped and assaulted her with a belt during her three-month captivity, reported The Salt Lake Tribune.
Vafeades, wearing glasses and a gray striped jail jumpsuit, gave a short, emotional apology at a sentencing hearing.
'I am sorry for my life. I am sorry for not recognizing myself and what a monster I am,' he said through sobs.
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Vampire-obsessed: Prosecutors said Vafeades was obsessed with vampires, called his truck the 'Twilight Express' and wore a set of false fangs (pictured above)
US District Judge David Nuffer said the abuses the women said they suffered were some of the worst things he'd ever come across.
Reading their statements was traumatic, 'and I didn't have to live it,' he said.
The judge handed down a sentence in line with a plea deal Vafeades made with prosecutors. Nuffer also ordered treatment and a lifetime of court supervision after his release.
Born as the product of his mother's rape, Vafeades also suffered serious abuse as a child, was 'never loved,' and repeated that pattern with his victims, his lawyer Vanessa Ramos said, though she disputed unspecified details of the victims' accounts.
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ShareProsecutors said Vafeades was obsessed with vampires, calling his truck the 'Twilight Express' and using Photoshop to make images of himself with coffins.
He wore his own set of vampire fangs, but his habit of grinding down his victims' teeth wasn't related to his fascination — he did it to fix some perceived flaw and instead left them with permanent damage, said prosecutor Trina Higgins.
Three of the victims claimed Vafeades used a Dremel power tool to grind off their teeth, and one alleged he took an X-acto knife to remove her teeth so she could wear false teeth.
'He had the ability to manipulate and brutalize these women beyond anything we could comprehend,' Higgins said.
Nabbed: Vafeades was arrested after officers at a Minnesota weigh station noticed bruises on the 19-year-old woman's face
He abused six women in similar ways over two decades, she said. Charges were filed in two cases of women aged 18 and 19. The other cases date back up to 20 years and were too old for criminal cases when the allegations came to light, authorities have said.
Vafeades was arrested after officers at a Minnesota weigh station noticed bruises on the 19-year-old woman's face and discovered an old restraining order barring Vafeades from contacting her, according to charging documents.
She knew Vafeades and voluntarily came to work with him, but when she decided to leave he attacked her, prosecutors said.
The 18-year-old woman said Vafeades kept her with him for about three months through threats and violence, forcing her to have sex with him nearly every day, calling her his slave, authorities said.
After his 2014 arrest, a second woman went to authorities to report she had been held captive in Vafeades' truck, according to the warrant.
Vafeades pleaded guilty in June to two counts of transporting for illegal sexual activity. Two kidnapping charges were dropped in exchange.
Higgins acknowledged the sentence could be considered short for the seriousness of the charges, but the plea deal brought closure to the victims and spared them from having to testify, she said. Had he gone to trial he could have gotten a maximum of about 25 years, she told the judge.
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