Share This:

Louisiana Sex Trafficking Trial Ends in Guilty Verdict Against Texas Man

Published February 17, 2022

Louisiana – United States Attorney Brandon B. Brown announced that Kevondric Fezia, 26, of Houston, Texas, has been found guilty by a federal jury in Lafayette on sex trafficking charges. United States District Judge James D. Cain, Jr. presided over the trial.

On April 22, 2021, a federal grand jury returned an indictment charging Fezia and his co-defendant, Calista Jenee Winfrey, 23, of Orange, Texas. The indictment charged Fezia and Winfrey with one count each of sex trafficking and attempting to entice a minor to engage in prostitution. Prior to the trial, Winfrey entered a guilty plea.

The trial began this week, and after only a few hours of deliberation, a federal jury in Lafayette found Fezia guilty on both counts. According to testimony at the trial, Fezia began recruiting minor females to engage in prostitution in November 2020 and began communicating with a 14-year-old female in Lake Charles, Louisiana. Fezia was well aware that she was a minor when he began communicating with her, but he pursued her and tried to persuade her that she would make a lot of money by engaging in prostitution for him.

The minor victim decided to run away to Texas with Fezia, and on February 13, 2021, he drove his Mercedes Benz to pick up the minor victim and take her to Texas. Winfrey and Fezia were both aware that the victim was only 14 years old, but they persisted in their efforts to persuade her to engage in prostitution.

Both defendants accompanied the minor victim to a hotel in Beaumont, Texas, and introduced her to a 16-year-old prostitute working for Fezia. Winfrey engaged in multiple acts of prostitution in the presence of the minor victim at the hotel, constantly attempting to persuade her that she, too, should engage in prostitution. Fezia took photos of both minor girls and the other prostitutes he employed and posted them on his Instagram account as an advertisement, along with a visible geo tag directing those who saw the advertisement to where they could engage in sexual acts with the girls.

When the grandmother of the minor victim realized her granddaughter had run away from home, she began looking through the child’s social media accounts and discovered communications between her granddaughter and Fezia. She then contacted authorities. Officers were able to identify Fezia and locate him in his apartment in Houston, Texas, along with other prostitutes and the minor victim. He tried to conceal her in the closet, but she and another 16-year-old prostitute were discovered.

Fezia and Winfrey face a maximum sentence of life in prison, 5 years of supervised release, and a fine of up to $250,000.

Fezia and Winfrey’s sentencing has been set for June 23, 2022, at 9:00 a.m.

The Department of Homeland Security’s Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Lake Charles Police Department investigated the case, which is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys J. Luke Walker and John W. Nickel.

Follow this link to report a typo or other issue.