Three men have been sentenced to state prison for trafficking teenage girls between New York City and North Carolina, closing out a years-long case that began with two rented rooms in East New York. Mylord Williams, Terrel Chery and Kinard Oliver were each ordered to serve time behind bars, register as sex offenders and complete five years of supervised release after admitting they transported at least three girls, ages 15 to 17, for prostitution between 2022 and 2024.
Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Danny Chun handed down the sentences in staggered court appearances, with Williams sentenced this past June 24, Oliver on August 12, and Chery just this past Wednesday, September 23, according to the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office. Williams, a Bronx resident, received a six-year prison sentence after pleading guilty solely to sex trafficking of a child, while Chery, of Nassau County, and Oliver, of Brooklyn, each pleaded guilty to that same charge plus fourth-degree conspiracy, per Brooklyn Eagle. Chery drew a 12-year sentence, and Oliver received eight years, as reported by News12 Bronx.
From East New York Rooms to Interstate Trafficking
The operation's roots trace back to July 2022, when Williams rented two rooms in East New York where he and Chery trafficked a 17-year-old girl, posting commercial sex advertisements online and confiscating everything she earned through October of that year, according to the Brooklyn DA's office. By October 2024, Chery and Oliver had transported a 15-year-old and a 16-year-old to North Carolina for commercial sex work.
Multi-Agency Task Force Pulled the Case Together
Dismantling the network required cooperation across jurisdictions, involving the FBI-NYPD Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force, the NYPD's citywide Human Trafficking Squad, and local police departments in Wilmington, North Carolina, and Henrico, Virginia, the district attorney's office says. Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez reaffirmed law enforcement's commitment to protecting victims of sexual predators, per News12 Bronx. “My office will continue to stand with survivors and hold traffickers fully accountable for the pain and harm they cause through this type of exploitation,” Gonzalez said, according to the outlet's report.
Under New York Penal Law § 230.34-a, sex trafficking of a child is a Class B felony punishable by five to 25 years in state prison, and the law explicitly bars defendants from claiming they didn't know a victim's age, according to New York Sex Trafficking Law. Separately, under Penal Law § 230.36, people forced into prostitution by a trafficker are legally protected from being charged as accomplices in sex trafficking prosecutions, according to The Blanch Law Firm, a provision meant to shield victims who come forward to testify against the people who exploited them.
East New York's Role in the Case
The operation began in East New York, where Williams rented two rooms in July 2022.
