A Little Rock man convicted by a jury last May of sexual exploitation of a minor will spend the next 10 years in a federal prison after being sentenced this week by U.S. District Judge Lee P. Rudofsky.
Anthony Atkins, 25, was arrested in July 2018 after a 17-year-old girl was charged with prostitution that was later tied to Atkins through cellphone records, social media accounts, online ads on an escort service site that authorities said was a front for sex trafficking, and statements from the girl.
After a three-day trial punctuated by outbursts from Atkins -- who insisted throughout the trial that he had fired his attorneys, Latrece Gray and Tamera Deaver with the Federal Public Defenders Office in Little Rock, and had to be removed from the courtroom several times -- the jury took just under three hours to find him guilty.
Atkins' defense was that he was a rap artist whose music and imagery was misinterpreted by federal prosecutors. He has one video posted to YouTube in May 2017 entitled "Go Get It" that has been viewed 411 times.
Atkins could have been sentenced to spend the rest of his life in prison but Rudofsky chose to sentence him to the minimum term of 10 years. However, when Atkins is deemed eligible to be released from prison, after serving at least 85% of his sentence, he will spend another 15 years on supervised release under conditions supervised by the federal probation office.
Rudofsky also ordered Atkins to pay a mandatory $100 special assessment.