Sex-trafficking trial's testimony set to wrap up

Defendant silenced by judge

Following two days of testimony in the trial of Anthony Atkins, charged in federal court with sex trafficking of a minor, defense attorneys are expected to rest their case this morning and put their client's fate in the hands of the jury of 10 women and two men.

Atkins, 25, was arrested in July 2018 after the arrest the previous month of a 17-year-old girl on a prostitution charge by Little Rock police that was later tied to Atkins through cellphone records, social media accounts, online ads on an escort service site authorities said was a front for sex trafficking, and statements from the girl.

If convicted, Atkins could receive a sentence ranging from 10 years to life in prison.

The girl, identified as L.D., testified for over an hour on Wednesday, saying that Atkins had acted as her pimp, arranging sexual encounters for her and requiring her to turn over the money she was paid to him.

A wild card in the trial is the question of whether Atkins will take the stand in his own defense, a move his lawyers, Latrece Gray and Tamera Deaver, opposed and that U.S. District Judge Lee P. Rudofsky warned poses significant risks for the defendant.

Although Rudofsky has allowed Atkins time to talk out of the jury's presence, the judge had to intervene on Thursday afternoon when Atkins tried to address the jury during the cross examination of FBI Agent Aaron Hurst.

"Mr. Atkins, right now Ms. Gray is questioning the witness..." Rudofsky began.

"No, my life is on the line," Atkins interrupted, gesturing toward Gray and Deaver. "I've already fired ya'll once before on ineffective assistance of counsel, so why are you here?"

"This is not the right procedure for this time," Rudofsky said. "All we need to do right now is let Ms. Gray question the witness."

"When will I be able to speak as a proper person?" Atkins demanded. "As my own functioning entity, a grand sheikh?"

"Listen to me," Rudofsky said sharply, after dismissing the jury. "I can't stop you from being like you are in front of the jury but... that does not win you any points... There is no reason for you to do that. You need to stop."

Rudofsky explained to Atkins that ultimately it was his right to testify or not.

"It doesn't matter to me either way what you do," the judge said. "That is a decision for you to make... in consultation with your lawyers. However, you are not going to speak to the jury at this point."

"That's a violation of my rights," Atkins began.

"No, no it's not," Rudofsky said as Atkins continued trying to talk. "We're not going to do this. If you disagree with me, there is a time to pursue this disagreement but the time is not now."

Hurst spent the morning and part of the afternoon painstakingly going through thousands of text messages from four different phone numbers and tying those numbers to Atkins. Under questioning by Assistant U.S. Attorney Kristin Bryant, Hurst testified that the numbers showed up as contacts on ads for prostitution, on text messages to "customers" of L.D.'s and on messages to various people that appeared to be come-ons, included in texts to people with screen names like "Pretty Pink Diamond" and "Goddess Mommy."

The text streams typically began with an entreaty from one of the numbers Hurst said had been traced to Atkins and were associated with the screen name "ForeverGTU," which Hurst said was associated with Atkins.

A video of Atkins was played which showed him talking to the camera. "I'm finna knock all you n * * * *s hoes stable," Atkins said on the video. "Just wait. Cherish them moments man 'cause I'm finna knock that b* * *h off those New Balances and put her in these fresh Giuseppe red bottom heels, b* * *h!"

Gray questioned the imagery and language, pointing out that Atkins was known as an aspiring rapper who had released an album. Showing Hurst the album cover, she pointed out the cover with "Forever, God of Little Rock" emblazoned across the top.

"Did you ever find out what GTU stands for?" Gray asked.

"I would say no but looking at the top of this it appears to be Greater Than Us Records," he said.

"Would you agree with me that oftentimes rap artists refer to themselves as pimps?" Gray asked, pointing out that much of the imagery and language associated with sex trafficking also appears in rap music symbolism.

Then Gray questioned the assertion that Atkins knew L.D. was a minor, pointing out that despite the girl's testimony that she had texted him a photo of her birth certificate, that photo was never found among the hundreds that were recovered from a search of Atkins' iPhone or the more than 6,700 Instagram images recovered.

Looking through some of the text messages, Gray observed that it was difficult to tell from the texts alone if the sender was male, female, young or old, and suggested they could be anyone.

"Unfortunately, anybody can be anybody on the internet," Hurst said.

"That's it," Gray agreed.

For her first defense witness, Gray called L.D.'s adoptive mother, who, with her husband, adopted L.D. when the girl was 13. The woman, who is not being named to avoid identifying L.D., said that the girl began acting out and running away around the time she started high school.

Asked if L.D. was known to lie, she said that did become an issue by the time L.D. reached 16.

"It could be as simple as her grades at school," she said. "There were some people she was hanging out with that we didn't approve of."

In response to Gray's questioning, she said she had last spoken to L.D. about 18 months ago but said at the time she left home in April 2018, she would have been welcome to come back home.

"If L.D. wanted to return home now," Gray asked, "could she return home?"

"No," the woman said, softly.

On cross examination, Bryant asked L.D.'s adoptive mother if she thought the girl was lying about being trafficked, which brought a quick objection from Gray, so Bryant rephrased the question.

"The big things," Bryant said, "things that are really important, did you think L.D. would lie about those?"

"No," she said.

"Did L.D. lie about many things?" Gray asked on redirect.

"Yes," she said.

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