FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, May 23, 2025
Eight Individuals Indicted for Conspiracy and Sex Trafficking
Defendants Variously Charged in Superseding Indictment in Connection with Trafficking of
Four Minors and One Adult in Brooklyn and North Carolina
Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez today announced that six men and two women are variously charged in a 19-count superseding indictment and a separate five-count indictment with conspiracy, sex trafficking, sex trafficking of a child, promoting prostitution and related charges.
District Attorney Gonzalez said, “Today’s indictments are the result of a continuing investigation into an allegedly widespread, multi-state sex trafficking ring. Five defendants were initially charged earlier this year, yet further investigation revealed the alleged involvement of three additional defendants and two additional minor victims. My office is committed to protecting all young women from this type of exploitation and to holding traffickers accountable.”
The District Attorney identified the defendants as Mylord Williams, 26, of the Bronx, Terrel Chery, 27, of Nassau County, and Kinard Oliver, 27, of Brooklyn. Cherry and Williams are charged in a five-count indictment for the alleged sex trafficking of a 17-year-old girl in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, in 2022.
Defendants Williams and Chery, as well as Oliver are named in a 19-count superseding indictment along with defendants Layquan Highsmith, 30, of Brooklyn; Ronasia Robinson, 31, of Troy, New York; Tyshawn Crawford, 29, of Brooklyn; Richard Baker, 45, of Brooklyn; and Eyecess Chapman, 24, of Brooklyn that variously charges them with promoting prostitution, sex trafficking of a child, conspiracy, and related charges.
Cherry was arraigned yesterday, and Williams and Oliver were arraigned today before Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Danny Chun. Cherry and Williams were remanded without bail and Oliver was ordered held in lieu of $100,000 bail or $1 million bond. All were ordered to return to court on August 13, 2025.
The District Attorney said that, according to the investigation, in July 2022 Williams allegedly rented two rooms in East New York, Brooklyn, and along with Chery, allegedly sex trafficked a 17-year-old girl, posting commercial sexual advertisements of her and collecting all the money she made by engaging in prostitution through October 2022.
A separate investigation began in November 2024, when a 19-year-old woman called 911 in Wilmington, North Carolina, and reported being forced to engage in prostitution in Brooklyn and North Carolina. She allegedly identified Highsmith, Robinson, Crawford, Baker, and Chapman in the illegal scheme.
Furthermore, it is alleged, a 15-year-old victim who had also been sex trafficked was identified, and further investigation revealed that Williams, Chery, Oliver, Highsmith, Crawford and Robinson, engaged in a conspiracy to engage in the sex trafficking of additional minors in Brooklyn and North Carolina. The conspiracy charges them with trafficking three minors from 2024 to 2025.
The defendants are variously charged in connection with the following additional incidents:
- Williams and Oliver allegedly sex trafficked a 17-year-old victim in Brooklyn in August 2024. That victim texted a friend asking for help and NYPD officers responded to the location. The investigation revealed that her trafficking had allegedly been going on since the beginning of February 2024.
- In October 2024, Chery, Oliver and Robinson allegedly transported a 15-year-old and a 16-year-old female to North Carolina where they engaged in prostitution in various cities and were required to give a portion of their earnings to Chery and Oliver.
- In mid-October 2024, after they came back from North Carolina the first time, Chery was complaining that the 15-year-old victim was not earning enough money for him so he then allegedly gave her to Highsmith, who then, along with Robinson and Crawford allegedly brought her, the two additional minors, the 19-year-old victim and other young adult women back to North Carolina to engage in prostitution.
The case was investigated by New York City Police Department Detective Kevin Deleon, along with now retired Detective James Rufle of the joint FBI-NYPD Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force and citywide Human Trafficking Squad, under the supervision of Lieutenant Amy Capogna, Lieutenant Joseph Picarello, Sergeant Kevin Kavanaugh, and Captain Maripily Clase, commanding officer of the Human Trafficking Squad, and the overall supervision of Chief Carlos Ortiz. Detective Investigators from the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office contributed to the investigation.
The District Attorney thanked Police Officer Tim Dewyngaert of the Wilmington, N.C., Police Department, Detective Joseph Wechsler of the Henrico, Virginia Police Division, Police Officer Sean Kehoe, Counselor Jacquelyn Wells and Sergeant Charles DePrima, of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Police Department Youth Services Unit, Investigator Sean Tashjian of the New York State Police, Detective Jonathan Castro, of the Newark Police Department, and Lieutenant Tracey Quinn of the Greene County Sheriff’s Office.
Additionally, the District Attorney thanked Deputy Chief Janette Lukowsky of the District Attorney’s Law Enforcement Assistance Unit, Human Trafficking Unit Deputy Chief Mary E. Monahan, Paralegal Specialist Aurora Martinez, Paralegal Aaliyah Antrobus, Social Worker Raquel Alger and Digital Evidence Lab Digital Forensic Analyst Taylor Mumley for their work on the case.
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Audrey Chao, of the District Attorney’s Human Trafficking Unit, and Assistant District Attorney David Weiss, Chief of the Human Trafficking Unit, under the overall supervision of Assistant District Attorney Miss Gregory, Chief of the Special Victims Bureau.
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An indictment is an accusatory instrument and not proof of a defendant’s guilt