More than two years after instigating a rolling gunfight on Seattle’s Aurora Avenue North, a California man was sentenced in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington on Monday to 15 years in prison on two federal felonies related to his sex trafficking of women.
Winston Burt, 32, who was known in the “prostitution underworld” as “Dice Capone,” was initially charged in King County Superior Court in November 2022 with a slew of charges including human trafficking, promoting prostitution, assault, kidnapping and drive-by shooting.
The case was ultimately split between federal and state court, with King County prosecutors amending the charges to three counts of second-degree assault, third-degree assault, unlawful imprisonment and drive-by shooting. Burt pleaded guilty to those charges in November and was sentenced to just over 14½ years, court records show.
Meanwhile, federal prosecutors charged Burt with sex trafficking through force, fraud and coercion, and unlawful possession of firearms, which Burt pleaded guilty to in October.
The state and federal sentences are to run at the same time and judges in both cases agreed that Burt could serve the majority of his prison time in the custody of the Washington Department of Corrections, with any leftover time served in custody of the federal Bureau of Prisons. He will receive credit for the time he’s spent in custody since his arrest.
Burt was also sentenced to serve 15 years on federal supervision, five times longer than the three years he is required to serve on community supervision, the state’s version of parole, court records say.
In addition to standard conditions of release — including that he keep a federal probation officer updated on his living arrangements and work status and is prohibited from possessing firearms — Burt is also subject to special conditions that he register as a sex offender, abstain from using drugs or alcohol, submit to periodic polygraph tests, and notify his probation officer about any computer software he uses during his probation.
During lengthy plea negotiations, King County prosecutors agreed to forgo charging Burt with first-degree assault, kidnapping and several firearms enhancements that would have added years to his prison term, according to court records.
According to state and federal prosecutors:
A 20-year-old woman was beaten and pistol-whipped Nov. 2, 2022, when she said she wanted to leave two months after she began prostituting for Burt. The woman, one of four who was forced to prostitute for Burt, was trapped in a South Seattle Airbnb for three days without her phone or any money.
Burt again assaulted the 20-year-old three days later and forced her to strip out of the clothes he had bought for her. The woman tried to leave out the front door, but after her way was barred, she jumped out of a third-story window to get away.
The 20-year-old hobbled into the street to seek help but was forced into Burt’s Mercedes-Benz and driven to the Emerald Motel on Aurora, where Burt had rented rooms for the women to conduct prostitution “dates,” charging papers say.
After Burt held her at gunpoint inside the Mercedes and threatened to break all her teeth, the woman was able to flee from the car and ended up sitting in the middle of the street, prompting passing drivers to call 911. Surveillance footage from nearby businesses corroborated the woman’s account.
An Uber driver saw the woman was in distress and told her to jump into his van. Burt followed in his Mercedes and began shooting at the fleeing van — and the Uber driver returned fire, according to charging papers.
The rolling gunfight continued for blocks, prompting multiple people to call 911 though no one was struck by the gunshots.
The Uber driver went north to North 145th Street and then onto southbound Interstate 5 before pulling over at a gas station to wait for police and state troopers to arrive. The van’s windshield was riddled with bullet holes, and blood was found in the back seat, where the woman had been sitting.
The woman was hospitalized with a broken leg, ankle and ribs. She also suffered spinal injuries, black eyes and scores of bruises and cuts to her body, according to the charges.
Seattle police arrested Burt, then 30, on Nov. 6, 2022, as he was leaving a six-bedroom Airbnb in South Seattle. At the time of his arrest, Burt was wearing a $29,000 diamond necklace and a watch appraised for $85,000 and police recovered more than $41,000 in cash and a gun from the Airbnb.
Burt required each woman to make $2,000 a day by prostituting on Aurora, “yielding tremendous profits” that reportedly enabled him to buy real estate, expensive jewelry and luxury cars, charging papers say.
At least two of the women — including the 20-year-old from California — had Burt’s alias, “Dice Capone,” tattooed on their faces, a sign of his ownership.
Burt, of Hemet, Calif., had also prostituted the women in California and Arizona before bringing them to Seattle, according to federal prosecutors. Law enforcement determined Burt had used some of his illegal income to purchase a home in Arizona. When that home was searched, they recovered an additional firearm, methamphetamine and nearly $25,000 in cash.
Burt will forfeit both firearms and more than $72,000 in cash.
“Winston Burt is a manipulative and predatory person who has supported a luxurious lifestyle for himself with the prostitution profits of his victims,” acting U.S. Attorney Teal Luthy Miller said in a Monday news release issued after his sentencing in federal court.
“His conduct — badly beating women in his control and engaging in a rolling gun battle when one person tried to escape — put our community at risk. Throughout his adult life, Burt has exhibited nothing other than disregard for the law and a complete lack of respect for women.”
Material from The Seattle Times archives is included in this story.