Orlando, Florida - U.S. District Judge Roy B. Dalton, Jr. has sentenced Kennedy Harris, Jr. (24, Cocoa) to 30 years in federal prison, followed by a life term of supervised release, for sex trafficking of a child by force, fraud, or coercion, and for producing child pornography. A federal jury found Harris guilty of both offenses on Sept. 29, 2016.
According to testimony and evidence presented at trial, in January 2016, Harris took in the victim, a 16-year girl, after she ran away from home. Harris then took sexually suggestive photographs of the girl and advertised her for sex on Backpage.com. He also enticed the victim to engage in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of photographing her. Over the course of approximately two weeks, the victim had sex with up to eight individuals per day, and gave the money to Harris. In exchange for her sex acts, Harris gave the girl crack cocaine nearly every day. On Feb. 10, 2016, the victim was recovered by the Cocoa Police Department.
This case was investigated by Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office, and the Cocoa Police Department. It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Tiffany L. Cummins.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by United States Attorneys' Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
