FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – A rape victim’s mother was in the courtroom Friday when Broward County prosecutors played explicit videos of the 2022 crime during a 17-year-old boy’s sentencing hearing.
For a few minutes, the compilation of videos put a 14-year-old boy’s savagery on full display. The teen had recorded the woman’s sexual abuse while under threat. The judge learned Terry Berger-Smith even made a Facetime call to a friend to stream her suffering.
The victim’s mother, her voice nearly breaking, had already read a statement saying it was “devastating to witness the profound impact” that the “cruel act” had on her daughter’s life. Terry and his parents had asked the judge for mercy.
“I pray for the victim’s forgiveness daily,” Terry said while reading a prepared statement before the judge sentenced him to more than 41 years in prison.
Court records show Terry was born on Aug. 1, 2007. His criminal history started early. According to Broward prosecutors, Terry was only 12 years old when he attempted to rape a woman at knifepoint in New York, “ripped out” her tooth, and kept it as a trophy.
After his release from a juvenile facility in New York, Terry moved to Broward County. A woman accused him of grabbing her by the neck in “a choke hold” during an ambush to try to rape her on May 27, 2022, in Hollywood.
The woman said she fought him off and ran back into her apartment. Two weeks later, there was another woman raped nearby. It was close to the Hollywood Police Department’s station at Hollywood Boulevard and South Park Road.
Detectives said Terry was masked when he ambushed a woman who was walking to work early in the morning of June 10, 2022, along South Park Road. According to prosecutors, Terry told her he “had been watching her,” wanted to add her to his “collection,” and was armed with a knife and a gun.
The victim reported Terry told her he was infecting her with AIDS and was going to get her pregnant. She said he asked if she lived alone, and when she answered in the affirmative, he ordered her to take him to her home. She had lied, so when Terry noticed her boyfriend, he quickly ran away.
Detectives arrested Terry on June 13, 2022, at the nearby EnV apartments where he lived. Records show Broward County Circuit Judge Michael Lynch granted the pickup order. Detectives reported that during interrogations, Terry admitted to regularly watching rape porn and disclosed he had intended to upload the videos he had recorded to Pornhub, a video-sharing site.
Terry appeared in juvenile court on June 14, 2022. He turned 15 in juvenile detention before prosecutors filed the capital life case in adult court on Aug. 11, 2022. Broward State Attorney Harold F. Pryor released a statement on Aug. 12, 2022.
“This person already went through the juvenile system in New York for a very disturbing violent incident and was committed to a juvenile facility there for 18 months,” Pryor said.
A hearing with County Circuit Judge Phoebee Francois followed. Attorney James Lewis, who represented Terry, said “it was not right” to hold the 15-year-old boy with adults.
Prosecutors filed five felony charges: Four counts of sexual battery with great force, a seventh-degree felony; and one count of kidnapping to facilitate a felony, a first-degree felony.
Broward Sheriff’s Office correctional deputies transferred Terry to the main jail in Fort Lauderdale. County Circuit Judge Marina Garcia-Wood ordered corrections to hold the teen without bond.
Terry’s defense filed a written plea of not guilty on Aug. 15, 2022, and his arraignment was 15 days later. County Circuit Judge Peter Holden presided over the case.
While preparing for a possible trial, Lewis filed a motion on Sept. 27, 2023, reporting the teen was “unable to pay for the necessary costs” of the defense.
Holden then declared Terry indigent, so the Justice Administrative Commission was “responsible for the payment or reimbursement” of additional defense costs.
Terry was 16 when Lewis filed a notice on May 24 in court that the teen was changing his plea during a court hearing on June 12. Records show Terry pleaded no contest to all charges.
On July 17, Lewis filed a motion advocating for juvenile sanctions instead of an adult sentence. He suggested Holden could use different sentencing guidelines for each of the charges.
“Numerous scientific studies demonstrate that a 14-year-old brain is not fully developed,” Lewis wrote arguing in favor of juvenile sentencing guidelines.
The sentencing hearing was Friday, a few weeks after Terry turned 17. Holden sentenced him to 495 months, about 41.25 years in state prison, and said it was the “lowest” possible sentence under the adult sentencing guidelines.
“The facts of the case do not justify it,” Holden said about his decision to avoid the juvenile sentencing guidelines.
Lewis will have 30 days to appeal the sentence and said he plans to do so.
“I really don’t think he is a monster,” Lewis said after the sentencing. “I think he is capable of redemption.”
After leaving the courtroom, the victim’s mother said she would have preferred a life sentence, and added that she also knows that Berger-Smith will “always be followed” just like her daughter will “always be followed with what happened.”
If Berger-Smith makes it out of prison, he will be a registered sex offender and Holden wants him on probation for life.
Local 10 News Photojournalist Mario Hernandez contributed to this report.