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‘I can’t go back to jail,’ man says after being caught in Opa-locka home with minor, according to police

Cory Smart. (Miami-Dade Corrections & Rehabilitation)

OPA-LOCKA, Fla. – A 19-year-old man was arrested Thursday, months after a 13-year-old girl’s mother caught him inside her home in Opa-locka, authorities said.

According to an arrest report, the teen opened the front door of her home around 4 a.m. on April 7 to allow Cory Smart, who she had been having sexual relations with, inside.

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Opa-locka police said the victim’s mother was sleeping upstairs when she was awakened by her Ring doorbell camera.

The woman told police that she got up and went downstairs where she found Smart in a bedroom, sitting on the bed.

“I’m on probation. I can’t go to jail,” Smart told her before running out of the bedroom and jumping out of a window, according to the report.

The police report states that the teen initially denied that she ever had sex with Smart, who is also from Opa-locka, but she was Baker Acted in May and disclosed to a counselor that she had been sexually active with Smart.

According to the report, the victim and her mother were later interviewed at the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Human Trafficking offices, where the victim divulged that she had sexual intercourse with Smart on four occasions.

Police said Smart was located Thursday and provided a statement, but the statement was redacted from the publicly released report.

Smart was arrested on a charge of lewd and lascivious battery on a victim 12-16.

As of Friday afternoon, he was being held at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center.


About the Author

Amanda Batchelor is the Digital Executive Producer for Local10.com.

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