Sex trafficker gets 30 years in prison: SAN DIEGO — An Oceanside man was sentenced in federal court to 30 years in prison for forcing a 17-year-old girl into prostitution, with a $1,200-a-day quota to earn from Craigslist clients for more than a year. Maurice Lerome Smith, 41, was convicted of sex trafficking of a child and being a felon in possession of a firearm after a three-day jury trial in May.
Smith faced a minimum of 15 years in federal prison at his Monday sentencing, but U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez gave him an additional 15 years and ordered him to pay $90,000 in restitution. “This is probably one of the highest sentences we’ve gotten in this jurisdiction,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Alessandra Serano said Tuesday. She said Smith got the longer prison term for using a computer to commit the crime, having a criminal history, not accepting responsibility for his actions and for being so much older than the girl.
The girl testified that in 2009 she asked Smith, the father of one of her schoolmates, for a job in his window-washing company. A few months later he had her living in his apartment, posting sex ads and meeting clients at motels. He beat and raped her, and threatened to kill her, prosecutors said. She also became aware of other women working for Smith as prostitutes.
The case came to light in September, 2010 when one of the girl’s clients called police at a Clairemont motel, and the girl told officers she was working for Smith. He was indicted in February of this year. Smith’s criminal history includes one-year sentence in 1992 for assault, and a four-year sentence in 1996 for conspiracy to abduct a 13-year-old girl in San Diego to force her into prostitution, Serano said.
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