Mother is guilty of sex trafficking

A federal jury convicted a Searcy woman of taking her teenage daughter to a man’s home, where the daughter engaged in a “sex act” so the woman could have morphine pills.

Shannon Adams, 43, was facing charges of sex trafficking of a minor and production of child pornography, but the jury on Thursday acquitted her of the pornography count.

She and Don Ray Harris, 59, of Heber Springs were each indicted in 2012 on charges of producing child pornography. More charges were added after authorities continued their investigation.

The charges stem from Oct. 31, 2011, when Adams and her teenage daughter went to Harris’ Heber Springs home. There, prosecutors say, the daughter showed Harris her breasts so her mother could have two morphine pills.

But it didn’t stop there - Harris touched the girl, who was 16 at the time, and performed oral sex on her, attorneys have said. After that, Harris took two nude photographs of Adams’ daughter - one of which both parties agreed wasn’t child pornography while the other was left up to the jurors to decide.

Harris pleaded guilty to one count, the charge of possession of child pornography, after agreeing to testify in Adams’ trial. The three other charges against him - production of child pornography, sex trafficking of a minor and felon in possession of a firearm - were dropped, and he can continue receiving benefits from the Veterans Affairs Department. He has yet to be sentenced.

Adams, who took the stand Thursday, called Harris 11 times within an hour on Oct. 31, 2011, according to phone records.

She went to Harris’ home to check on him, and when he still didn’t answer, she left, while continuing to call him, Adams said.

Finally just after 10:30 a.m., Harris called her back, according to phone records.

“I was calling him and asked if I could come over,” Adams said. “I was worried about him. He always answers my phone calls.”

But she said she “didn’t think it was necessary” to call 911.

U.S. Assistant Attorney Mike Gordon also questioned the defendant about her motive for going to Harris’ house.

“Obviously, if I’m in there, I’m going to pick up some pills,” she said, denying that she went just for the morphine pills.

When she and her daughter got to Harris’ home, Adams said they made Harris’ bed before the girl flashed him. Adams “just rolled [her] eyes” and began house chores after her daughter lowered her shirt.

At one point, she said she went to the bathroom, which is directly across the hallway from the bedroom, but didn’t hear or see any sexual activity. There are no doors in the home, as to make it handicap accessible for Harris, who uses a wheelchair.

She walked into the bedroom to tell her daughter they were leaving and caught Harris in a sex act with her daughter, Adams testified.

“It was something I did not want to see. I didn’t think it was anything to involve the police of,” Adams said. “She was 16 and did what she wanted to obviously.”

The daughter, who is now 18, told jurors Thursday that she didn’t know why her mother was going to Harris’ home.

“[Adams told me] he was dying and depressed, and he was feeling good and this would make him happy or whatever,” the daughter said, “if I flashed him.”

The daughter also said her mother went in and out of the room “periodically,” but she couldn’t remember whether Adams was in the bedroom when the picture was taken. She noticed an exchange between Harris, who appeared to have reached into his jacket pocket in his closet, the daughter said.

After that Halloween, the daughter wrote an unfinished note to her then-boyfriend that read: “[Adams] will willing to use my body to feed her addiction. She let Don …” She didn’t get a chance to finish writing it, as her then-boyfriend snatched it away from her, she said, adding later that she “just wanted pity.”

“I just wanted to be with my boyfriend,” the daughter said. “I used this as a way to get out, so she can’t tell me no. I would just hold it over [Adams’] head.”

In closing arguments, defense attorney Mark Jesse said the “most pivotal question” was when prosecutors asked Adams if she understood the consequences of being in the room at the time the pictures were taken.

“All the evidence doesn’t matter if she was not a participant in that last account,” he said, adding later that the three never discussed what happened.

Prosecutors argued that Adams knew exactly what was going on in the bedroom.

“Do you really believe that Don Ray Harris is getting [the daughter] naked on his bed and mama is in the house and just doesn’t have a clue?” Assistant U.S. Attorney Tricia Harris asked jurors. “She needed her fix, and she was willing to provide her daughter’s body in exchange for it.”

Adams will be sentenced at a later date and is facing a minimum of 10 years in prison for the one charge.