YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – One of three remaining Ohio suspects in a forced-labor case has pleaded guilty to helping enslave a mentally disabled woman for two years with her child.
Twenty-one-year-old Dezerah Silsby (SILZ'-bee) of Ashland entered the plea Friday under an agreement sealed in Youngstown federal court.
There was no immediate comment from her attorney. The government wouldn't say whether she had agreed to testify against her co-defendants.
The U.S. attorney's office says she pleaded guilty to four counts of an indictment charging her with threatening the victim, beating her and making her do housework.
Two other defendants face trial in February. A fourth has pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate.
An FBI affidavit says Silsby admitted luring the woman and her daughter from a relative's house to captivity.
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