Decatur Man Sentenced to 30 Years in Prison for Plan to Kidnap Woman and Sell Daughter into Sex Trade

BIRMINGHAM – A federal judge today sentenced a Decatur man involved in a kidnapping and child sex-trafficking plot to 30 years in prison, announced U.S. Attorney Jay E. Town and FBI Special Agent in Charge Johnnie Sharp Jr.

U.S. District Judge R. David Proctor sentenced BRIAN DAVID “Blaze” BOERSMA, 49, for attempted kidnapping of a minor, attempted kidnapping, attempted sex trafficking of a child, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and possessing a firearm in furtherance of a violent crime. Boersma pleaded guilty to the charges in March.

Boersma had a detailed plan to kidnap a woman and her 14-year-old daughter, sexually assault and torture the woman, and sell her child into the sex trade, according to court records. Boersma falsely implicated the woman’s ex-husband in the kidnapping plot.

“Boersma’s actions will forever remain despicable and the horrors that he intended upon innocent victims was avoided because a concerned citizen heard something and then said something,” Town said. “There is only one place suitably worse than prison for Boersma…and that day will come, too.”

“Boersma is now being held accountable for his depraved and abhorrent behavior,” Sharp said. “I, particularly, want to thank my agents and our partners at the Decatur Police Department for their work in bringing Boersma to justice. The FBI and our law enforcement partners are committed to aggressively seeking out those who exploit innocent victims.”

            Boersma worked at the Alabama Farmers’ Cooperative in Decatur shuttling trailers from the storage yard to the warehouse where they would be loaded with merchandise to ship to other locations. His plea agreement with the government lays out his efforts in the fall of 2017 to encourage a co-worker at the co-op to find someone willing to kidnap a woman and her daughter for payment. Boersma, in installments, gave the co-worker $3,440 to hold for a kidnapping payment. The co-worker alerted the FBI to Boersma’s plan in mid-September and the bureau sent two undercover employees to pose as willing kidnappers.

            According to Boersma’s plea agreement, he intended to carry out the kidnappings and child sex-trafficking as follows:

Boersma boasted to his co-worker that he would sell the child to a pimp he knew in Memphis, Tenn., and hoped to get as much as $40,000 because she was “a young, clean virgin.” Ultimately, his contact in Memphis offered him only $8,000 for the girl, Boersma said.

            Boersma had outfitted a trailer at the co-op with a mattress and restraints for holding the mother and daughter. He also placed inside the trailer a metal “sex device” he had built so the woman could be tied to it, beaten and raped.

Boersma falsely claimed that the woman’s ex-husband wanted the woman and child kidnapped as retribution for the woman divorcing him and taking him to court for child support. He said the ex-husband wanted to beat the woman with a bullwhip and it would be a “bloody mess” in the trailer. He said he put plastic down inside the trailer to help with clean up.

Boersma also told the undercover FBI employees that once the woman was dead, he would “have to go get 300 pounds of lime and dig a hole.” He said he would get the lime from the co-op and bury the body under a nearby bridge.

On Oct. 10, Boersma and his co-worker met at a Decatur hotel with the undercover FBI agents who Boersma believed would kidnap the mother and child. Boersma told the agents what he wanted done, provided photos of the two intended victims and handed the agents $3,440. He then led the agents to the woman’s workplace, to her home and to the co-op, where he showed them the trailer he had prepared for holding the victims.

Shortly after returning to the hotel, police arrested Boersma as he approached his pickup truck. A loaded Smith & Wesson M&P .40-caliber pistol was recovered in a subsequent search of the truck. Boersma was prohibited from possessing the gun because of a felony unlawful possession of a controlled substance conviction in Shelby County, Tenn., in 1998.

The FBI investigated the case in conjunction with the Decatur Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney Davis Barlow prosecuted the case.