Man Pleads Guilty to Sex Trafficking of Teen

Aug. 27, 2021 – A 27-year-old Memphis man pled guilty Friday to sexually assaulting a teen for nearly two weeks last year after she walked away from a treatment facility, said Shelby County Dist. Atty. Gen. Amy Weirich.

Defendant Johnny Montrail Smith pled guilty in Criminal Court Division 2 to felony counts of rape and trafficking for sexual servitude. He was sentenced to two concurrent terms of eight years in prison without the possibility for parole.

The 15-year-old victim from the Nashville area met Smith around March 1, 2020, after she walked away from a treatment center, and accepted his offer of help with food and shelter. She said he took her to a residence on Carver Avenue where he forced her to have sex after giving her cocaine and ecstasy.

She said that over the next 12 days Smith took her to various residences around Memphis where she was forced to have sex with other men in exchange for lodging for her and Smith.

She said Smith beat her, threatened her with a gun and with a box cutter, and said he would kill her if she did not cooperate or if she tried to leave. On March 12, while walking outdoors with Smith, the young woman abruptly flagged down a passing sheriff’s deputy for help.

Smith was arrested on a warrant the following day.

The criminal case was handled by Asst. Dist. Atty. Jermal Blanchard of the District Attorney’s Special Victims Unit which prosecutes cases of rape, child sexual and physical abuse, and abuse of elderly and vulnerable adults.