United States Attorney Brandon B. Brown announced the resolution of two cases involving sex crimes. United States District Judge James D. Cain, Jr. sentenced the three defendants as follows:
Kevondric Fezia, 26, of Houston, Texas, was sentenced to 327 months (27 years, 3 months) in prison, and Calista Jenee Winfrey, 23, of Orange, Texas 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-yearold 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, Texas 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.
In the second case, Mickey Dewayne Williams, 43, of Lake Charles, was sentenced to 327 months (27 years, 3 months) in federal prison, followed by a lifetime of supervised release, for sexual exploitation of children.
In March 2021, law enforcement officers in Texas were contacted by an individual alleging that their minor child had been videotaped while naked in the bathtub by Williams. Law enforcement agents questioned Williams about the incident, and he admitted that he had in fact taken the photographs of the child while they were in the Western District of Louisiana. Williams has a prior felony conviction for possession of child pornography which also occurred in the Western District of Louisiana in 2014. He served time in federal prison for that offense and was on supervised release at the time that this incident occurred.
This case was investigated by the Department of Homeland Security Investigations and was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney J. Luke Walker.
“These defendants sought out those to victimize who were vulnerable, whether it was girls under the age of 17, or minor children, without any regard for the well being of those victims but instead to gratify their own selfish desires,” said United States Attorney Brandon B. Brown. “Sex trafficking and sexual exploitation crimes are on the rise, and we are committed to continuing to work with our federal and local partners to stop those who choose to destroy teenage lives and scar those of child victims.”
“There is no place in our society for those who prey on the most vulnerable of our population. These sentence lengths reflect the heinous nature of the crimes committed, and for the HSI special agents and our law enforcement partners, it’s a gratifying outcome. We are thankful to our special agents and our law enforcement partners who do the difficult but important work of investigating these crimes,” said HSI New Orleans Special Agent in Charge Dave Denton. “We also hope that the sentence serves as part of the victims’ healing process, and it reaffirms our commitment to safeguarding our nation’s children.”
These cases are part of Project Safe Childhood, a U.S. Department of Justice nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood combines federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.