6-Day Trial Ends with Guilty Verdict for Man Who Trafficked Runaway Minors in Bowdon

CARROLLTON, Ga. — A 57-year-old man was convicted by a Carroll County jury on multiple human trafficking and child exploitation charges following a six-day trial stemming from the 2019 trafficking of minor runaways, the West Georgia Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office announced.

Jeffery Earl Cook, 57, was found guilty on Wednesday, August 26, 2026, of 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 for a Person Under 18. The Honorable Judge Erica Tisinger presided over the trial, which was prosecuted by Senior Assistant District Attorney Jared Parrish.

2019 Abduction and Forced Sexual Servitude

The investigation began on March 30, 2019, when officers with the Carrollton Police Department responded to a local hotel and located four minor female runaways who had escaped from a children’s residential facility in Bowdon.

Trial evidence revealed that Cook encountered the four juveniles and offered to transport them to Atlanta to stay with a relative. Instead, Cook drove the minors to his residence in Bowdon and introduced them to co-defendant Shanice Goodwin. Over the next 24 hours, Cook forced two of the minor females to perform commercial sexual acts for money under his direction.

Co-Defendant Sentences and Multi-Agency Investigation

The multi-agency investigation was led by Detective Vonda Thomas with the Carrollton Police Department, Investigator Jackson Lawrence with the Carroll County Sheriff’s Office, Investigator Sean Chastain of the District Attorney’s Office, and District Attorney’s Office Victim Advocate Samantha Simmons.

Following opening statements at trial, co-defendant Clifford Pruett, 35, entered a negotiated guilty plea to two counts of Trafficking of Persons for Sexual Servitude, Aggravated Child Molestation, Statutory Rape, Child Molestation, Pandering for a Person Under 18, and Pimping for a Person Under 18. Pruett was sentenced to Life in prison, with the first 15 years to be served without the possibility of parole, conditioned on providing truthful testimony. Co-defendant Shanice Goodwin previously entered a guilty plea for her involvement in the operation.