Courtesy of the Carroll County Sheriff's Office
CARROLL COUNTY, Ga. - A 57-year-old man faces sentencing after a Carroll County jury convicted him last Wednesday on human trafficking and child exploitation charges.
What we know:
A Carroll County jury found Jeffery Earl Cook, 57, guilty last Wednesday on six criminal counts following a six-day trial.
The charges include two counts of trafficking of persons for sexual servitude, two counts of pandering for a person under 18, one count of enticing a child for indecent purposes, and one count of pimping a person under 18.
Judge Erica Tisinger presided over the trial, which was prosecuted by Senior Assistant District Attorney Jared Parrish.
Authorities said the case began on March 30, 2019, when Carrollton police officers responded to a local hotel and found four minor female runaways.
Investigators learned the girls ran away from a children's residential facility in Bowdon before meeting Cook.
Cook offered to drive the children to Atlanta to the home of his sister, but instead brought them to his home in Bowdon.
He then introduced the girls to co-defendant Shanice Goodwin.
Over the next 24 hours, Cook forced two of the minor girls to perform sexual acts in exchange for money.
During the trial, 35-year-old co-defendant Clifford Pruitt pleaded guilty to multiple charges, including trafficking of persons for sexual servitude, aggravated child molestation, and statutory rape.
Pruitt received a life sentence, with the first 15 years to serve without parole eligibility.
Goodwin previously entered a guilty plea for her involvement in the operation.
What we don't know:
Officials have not yet released the specific date for Cook's formal sentencing hearing.
The Source: The information in this story was gathered from West Georgia Judicial Circuit District Attorney Sarah Stimac Japour, who issued a public statement detailing the trial results and multi-agency law enforcement investigation.