United States Attorney Brandon B. Brown announced the resolution of a case involving sex crimes. United States District Judge James D. Cain, Jr. sentenced two defendants as follows:
Kevondric Fezia, 26, of Orange, was sentenced to 327 months (27 years, 3 months) in prison, and Calista Jenee Winfrey, 23, of Orange, was sentenced to 36 months (3 years) in prison. Both defendants will serve 5 years of supervised release after their release from prison. In addition, Fezia and Winfrey were each ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $3,500. Fezia and Winfrey were charged with sex trafficking and attempting to entice a minor to engage in prostitution. Fezia was convicted by a jury in Lafayette following a two-day trial and Winfrey pleaded guilty to sex trafficking in February 2022.
Evidence presented in this case revealed that beginning in November 2020, Fezia was recruiting minor females to engage in prostitution and began communicating with a 14-year old female in Lake Charles, Louisiana. Fezia was well aware when he began communicating with her that she was a minor, but still pursued her and tried to convince her that she would profit by engaging in prostitution through him. The minor victim made a decision to run away with Fezia to Texas. On February 13, 2021, he picked up the minor victim and took her to Texas. Winfrey and Fezia both were well aware that the victim was only 14 years old, but they continued to try and convince her to engage in prostitution.
Both defendants traveled with the minor victim to a hotel in Beaumont and introduced her to a 16-year-old prostitute that was also working for Fezia. Winfrey engaged in multiple acts of prostitution in the presence of the minor victim at the hotel, continually trying to convince the minor victim that she should also engage in prostitution. Fezia took photographs of both minor girls and the other prostitutes he was employing. He then posted them on his Instagram account as an advertisement, along with a visible geo tag showing those who saw the advertisement where to go to engage in sexual acts with the girls.
When the minor victim’s grandmother realized that she had run away from home, she began looking at the child’s social media accounts and found the communications between her granddaughter and Fezia. She then contacted law enforcement. Law enforcement officers were able to identify Fezia and found him at his apartment in Houston, Texas, along with other prostitutes and the minor victim. He attempted to hide her in the closet, but she and the other 16-year-old prostitute were found.
The case was investigated by the Department of Homeland Security Investigations and the Lake Charles Police Department and was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys J. Luke Walker and John W. Nickel.
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