On November 14, 2019, sex offender Corey Laquan Witty, 49, of Miami, Florida was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Federico A. Moreno to 17 years in prison for possessing child pornography.

Ariana Fajardo Orshan, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Juan J. Perez, Director, Miami-Dade Police Department (MDPD), and Anthony Salisbury, Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations (ICE-HSI), Miami Field Office, made the announcement.

Witty had previously been convicted of offenses, including possession of child pornography and lewd and lascivious battery on a child.  As a result, he was ordered to register as a sex offender.  His first conviction for lewd and lascivious battery on a child occurred in 1999.  After Witty repeatedly failed to attend sex offender treatment, his probation was revoked and he was incarcerated for two years.  In 2005, Witty was convicted of failing to register as a sex offender and for lewd and lascivious battery on a child.  In 2008, he was convicted of possession of child pornography and sentenced to 121 months in federal prison and a lifetime of supervised release, by U.S. District Court Judge Marcia G. Cooke (Case No. 7-CR-20699).

In July 2019, during Witty’s semiannual sex offender registration meeting, he was found in possession of two cell phones, one of which was a smart phone, which Witty was prohibited from possessing. As a registered sex offender, Witty was barred from accessing the Internet.  The phone contained child pornography, in violation of Witty’s supervised release conditions.  On August 27, 2019, Witty pled guilty to possessing child pornography (Case No. 19-CR-20453). 

Judge Moreno considered Witty’s background and criminal history, when sentencing him above the guideline range to 204 months in prison. 

U.S. Attorney Fajardo Orshan commended the investigatory efforts of HSI and the MDPD in this matter.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Michele S. Vigilance prosecuted the case.  

Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or on http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov.