14 October 2023
A 51-year-old West St. Paul man has been sentenced to 14 years in prison after admitting to sexually assaulting a runaway teen in Burnsville in 2019.
Prosecutors in Ramsey and Dakota counties brought separate cases against Ricardo Antonio Miranda in October 2019 for allegedly forcing a then-14-year-old girl into sex trafficking in a St. Paul motel room — threatening to kill her if she didn’t comply — and sexually assaulting her in a tent at Vista View Park in Burnsville.
Ricardo Antonio Miranda. (Courtesy of Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office)
Miranda was charged in Ramsey County with engaging in sex trafficking of a minor and receiving profits from the prostitution of someone under 18. In Dakota County, he faced two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct.
Miranda reached an agreement with prosecutors last year. In exchange for pleading guilty in Dakota County to two added counts of third-degree criminal sexual conduct involving a minor, all other charges against him in both counties would be dismissed. He would receive two concurrent prison sentences of 14 years.
Dakota County District Judge Ann Offermann signed off on the plea agreement last October — and handed down the prison sentence last week.
Dennis Gerhardstein, a spokesman for the Ramsey County attorney’s office, said Friday that because the two cases involved the same victim, prosecutors from both counties worked together to get a “global resolution” on both of them.
Miranda will receive credit for just under four years that he has already served in custody. After prison, he must serve a statutorily-required 10 years of conditional release and register as a predatory offender.
Girl was at hospital with injuries
St. Paul police officers were sent to United Hospital on Oct. 8, 2019, after a teen told staff she was a victim of sex trafficking. She had called her brother, who brought her to the hospital.
She told officers she met a man in St. Paul after she ran away from home, that he made her have sex with men for money, refused to let her leave and threatened to kill her. She said he had served years in prison.
The girl’s brother gave police the suspect’s Facebook profile photo; he was identified as Miranda.
An officer with the human trafficking unit spoke with the girl. Her eyes were swollen, red and bruised, and she had cuts to her mouth. She said the injuries were caused by Miranda burning her with a methamphetamine pipe and hitting her with a bag of tent poles. Another was caused by a “John” hitting her with a brick, she told the officer.
She said that her previous “pimp” essentially sold her to Miranda earlier that month. Miranda used the photos already posted of her online to advertise her for sex.
He took her to a Motel 6 on Old Hudson Road in St. Paul and forced her to have sex with around 10 men a night, charging between $160 and $260 depending on the time they spent, the girl said. If she refused to cooperate, he threatened to kill her.
Miranda and the girl stayed in the hotel for about four nights. They then stayed in the tent at the Burnsville park, where he raped her twice over two days.
A Burnsville officer spoke with Miranda and the girl at the park on both Oct. 7 and Oct. 8, 2019, after police received complaints about a tent near a path, according to a court document filed by Dakota County prosecutors last year. The girl identified herself as being 22, and declined medical attention for her swollen lip and eye.
Past convictions
At the time of the offense, Miranda was on probation for a 2018 Ramsey County second-degree assault conviction. His criminal record also includes past convictions for manslaughter, fifth-degree assault, terroristic threats, simple robbery and theft.
Miranda went by the last name Sallis when he punched a man in front of the Dorothy Day Center in downtown St. Paul on Sept. 11, 2004, according to court documents. The man, 43-year-old Donald Raymond Tate, died of head injuries at Regions Hospital five days later.
Sallis told police that Tate stole $10 from him and then Sallis punched him. Sallis said he received the $10 for selling a bag of marijuana. He was sentenced to just over 11 years in prison in 2005.
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