United States of America v. Darryl Odely, Jr.

Fort Lauderdale, Florida Criminal defense lawyer represented the Defendant charged with sex trafficking of a minor by force or coercion in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1591.



In 2021, the minor victim, D.M.C., ran away from home and

was reported missing by her family. She was recruited into prosti-

tution first by a woman named Keke, then by another woman

named Skittles.



While working as a prostitute for Skittles, D.M.C. met Mr.

Odely, who paid her for sex. After she got into an argument with

Skittles, D.M.C. called Mr. Odely and asked him to pick her up. She

moved into his mother's house with him and lived there for two

months. When Mr. Odely's mother was evicted they began living

out of a car.



During her testimony, D.M.C. told the jury that Mr. Odely

"manipulated” her into sex work. Mr. Odely posted online prosti-

tution advertisements for D.M.C. and handled most of the text ne-

gotiations with customers. Mr. Odely also transported D.M.C. to

meet customers and often received payments from customers

through his Cash App account. D.M.C. also testified that when she

"didn't feel like having sex with [customers] anymore” she and Mr.

Odely "started robbing them.” She said that Mr. Odely provided

her with "beans” (a type of upper) and marijuana.



D.M.C. said that she was scared of Mr. Odely and that he hit

her, choked her, threatened to kill her, and broke her phone to pre-

vent her from accessing her contacts. She explained that some of

this violence occurred during arguments about Mr. Odely's ongo-

ing relationship with the mother of his child.



Police eventually located D.M.C. at a hotel with Mr. Odely

and arrested him. A grand jury charged Mr. Odely with sex traf-

ficking of a minor by force or coercion in violation of 18 U.S.C. §

1591.

Imprisonment 300 months; Supervised Release 60 months.