Man bragged about beating human trafficking charges in 2 states. What happened in NC?
In a recorded phone call from the Durham County jail, Corey Oliver Smith said he had beaten human-trafficking charges in California and Maryland.
“He said he was going to beat the charges in North Carolina too,” Assistant District Attorney Kendra Montgomery-Blinn said Friday. “And then he laughed about being caught in Durham, North Carolina.”
On Thursday, a jury convicted Smith, 40, of attempted human trafficking of a 16-year-old minor and first-degree kidnapping. Human trafficking charges in the North Carolina are rare and convictions rarer still.
On Friday Montgomery-Blinn asked Superior Court Judge Mike O’Foghludha to sentence Smith to from 21 to about 31 years in prison.
Smith’s attorney, Daniel Meier, asked the judge to consider the facts of the case, including that Smith thought the 16-year-old girl was older and that there was no evidence of him using physical force when he picked up her and a 31-year-old woman in Charlotte, brought them to a hotel in Greensboro and then Raleigh-Durham International Airport.
Montgomery-Blinn contended Smith was attempting to fly the women to Las Vegas to work as prostitutes on the strip. Meier said he was giving them a ride at the request of the 31-year-old.
911 call from McDonald’s
At the airport, the 16-year-old was unable to board the plane. Smith later took the two women to McDonald’s, where they called 911 from the bathroom.
Meier also asked the judge to consider that Smith is the father of three children and is the sole parent of a nearly 2-year-old whose mother was murdered.
Meier asked that Smith be sentenced to up to nearly 12 1/2 years.
Smith, of Los Angeles, California, said he came to North Carolina to visit his parents, “and it turned into this.”
“I just ask that you be fair in sentencing me,” Smith said. “I am my Mom’s heart. And I just ask that you give her hope.”
O’Foghludha sentenced Smith to between 18 years and 31.6 years in state prison.
Meier said he plans to appeal the conviction.
Historic conviction
District Attorney Satana Deberry called the conviction historic.
The Durham County District Attorney’s Office searched records going back to 2010 and didn’t find another human trafficking trial, according to Sarah Willets, a spokesperson for the office.
The most recent conviction the office could find was a guilty plea to human trafficking of a child victim in 2011 for a 2008 offense.
Since 2010, there have been two other charges for human trafficking, but both were dismissed in 2014.
Across the state, there have been only nine human trafficking convictions, including five involving children, in North Carolina courts since 2013, according to the N.C. Sentencing and Policy Advisory Commission.
There doesn’t appear to be any data that indicates there has ever been an attempted human trafficking conviction before, she said.
The DA’s Office moved forward with the case despite challenges that included the 31-year-old never cooperating with the case and the 16-year-old’s mother indicating about a month ago that her daughter was too afraid to testify at trial and they wouldn’t be able to find her.
In addition, the lead detective in the case resigned at the end of October.
Despite the “serious roadblocks,” Deberry said, she and others thought it was very important to move forward and to let the jury decide.
“We feel like we protected this victim,” Deberry said. “And we also said to the community and to other victims that if you come forward we will move forward.”
As the judge read Smith’s sentence, tears started to fall from the defendant’s eyes.
Smith then asked the judge to let him give his mother one last hug and kiss, and O’Foghludha said yes.
As he hugged and kissed his mother, he cried and told her it would be OK.
“I love you,” he said as he was taken, handcuffed and shackled, from the courtroom.
Individuals who are the victims of human trafficking or believe they have information about human trafficking activity may call the National Human Trafficking Hotline at 1-888-373-7888 or send a text message to BeFree (233733).
This story was originally published November 22, 2019 at 3:14 PM.
