Sex offender to serve 9 years

A Greenwood man was sentenced to nine years in prison after four teenage girls reported that he forced them to have sex with him.

Steven Ray Smith, 21, pleaded guilty to rape, strangulation, criminal trespass and four counts of sexual misconduct with a minor. He was sentenced to nine years in prison and five years probation this week. Smith will also have to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life, according to the prosecutor’s office.

Smith had been charged with multiple felony counts after four 15-year-old girls told police Smith had forced them to have sex with him in separate incidences at different locations, according to police reports.

“This was obviously a difficult case, with multiple victims,” Johnson County Deputy Prosecutor Ryan Bland said.

The incidents stemmed from July 2015 to February 2016.

One of the girls told police Smith had come to a friend’s home where she was staying and forced her to have sex, and then told her not to tell anyone or it would happen again, according to the police report.

Another girl told police Smith had come to her home and forced her to have sex while grabbing her by the throat, making it hard for her to breathe. She told police she scratched him to try to get him to stop, and police found scratch marks on Smith’s arm, the report said. Later, Smith asked two other men to lie and tell police he had been with them the day the girl was raped, the report said.

One teen told police she was afraid of Smith and that he held her down and forced her to have sex, and stopped when she began to cry, the report said.

Another teen told police Smith had forced her to have sex multiple times between July 2015 and February 2016, the report said.

All of the girls told police that Smith knew their ages.

Investigators have found no evidence to show there are any other victims, Bland said.

Police interviewed acquaintances of the teens and Smith, who said Smith had told them he had sex with the teenage girls, the reports said.

Bland said each of the victims was able to make their reports to police and cooperate with the criminal case, despite going through a difficult time personally. Because of their help, the case was able to be finished in just under 10 months, he said.