On Friday, Nueces County jury returned a guilty verdict in the case State vs. Jovan Miles in the 94th Judicial District Court. Today the jury returned a sentence of 40 years for Miles’ crime. This case marks the important first human trafficking conviction in the county’s fight against human exploitation. Human Trafficking Prosecutor Kirsta Leeburg Melton, from the Office of Attorney General Ken Paxton, assisted Nueces County’s Assistant District Attorney Michelle Putman in the prosecution of Miles.
Miles is guilty of the continuous human trafficking of a 15-year-old girl in Corpus Christi and Houston. Over a period of two months in 2015 Miles trafficked the minor utilizing the classified listings website Backpage.com.
“Human trafficking is an egregious crime, and cases like this one are the very reason my office has launched a section dedicated to combating it,” said Attorney General Paxton. “Thanks to the hard work of the Nueces County District Attorney’s Office and my office’s Human Trafficking and Transnational Organized Crime Section, a vile predator is incarcerated and will be unable to harm anyone again. I will continue the fight against human trafficking and will work tirelessly with law enforcement officials and advocacy groups to rid our state of this detestable crime.”