Trial jurors at Criminal Court “A” in Monrovia on Wednesday, March 20 came down with a unanimous guilty verdict against Pastor Revival Womo Sam for Human Trafficking a Liberian 12-year-old girl to Nigeria.
The unanimous verdict came weeks after defendant Sam pleaded not guilty to the crimes of rape, human trafficking and kidnapping.
During the trial, judge Roosevelt Z. Willie of Criminal Court “A” ruled that the charge of statutory rape be transferred to criminal “E” based on the argument proffered by the defendant’s lawyer, T. Joseph Debbleh that Court “A” lacks the jurisdiction to prosecute rape cases.
The charge of human trafficking was also dropped against the defendant based on insufficient evidence submitted to the court by state prosecutors.
In a testimony to the court, victim JMF (not real name) then 12 years but now 15 said that defendant Sam had sexual intercourse with her for the first time on Valentine’s Day in 2018 at his residence when she was 14.
JMF who testified in camera at Court “A” said “I was staying with him and saw him like a father. I refused to return home because I was still enjoying staying with him. I was enjoying to the effect that I saw him as a good person that I could be with”.
JMF also told jurors and the court that defendant Sam was so nice to her that he shouldered her high school and up keeps, adding that though defendant Sam had sexual intercourse with her, but he was not the man that broke her virginity.
She also testified that she got pregnant for defendant Sam from the sexual intercourse she had with him and gave birth in December, making her a mother of almost a four-month-old baby.
