A convicted pimp was sentenced Tuesday to 40 years in prison for prostituting a pair of teens.
DeKalb County Superior Court Judge Gail Flake gave Darryl Bearnard Curry an additional 20 years of probation, citing the impact he had on his two victims and his apparent lack of contrition during the trial earlier this month.
“This court has observed your arrogance and has not observed any remorse on your part,” Flake told Curry. “It’s clear to the court that you have caused immense destruction in the lives of these victims. I’m sure this destruction is going to remain with these young ladies for the rest of their lives.”
Assistant DeKalb district attorney Dalia Racine asked the judge to sentence him to 183 years in prison, reading a letter from Curry’s oldest victim to emphasize his impact.
“The fear that lives with me, always being scared that someone is going to hurt me or take me from my home … it’s not just him, it’s all men,” Racine read from the victim’s words. “The way that I hate men is all because of him. I feel as if I’m stuck in that house, in my personal Hell.”
Curry was convicted for keeping two girls – ages 16 and 17 at the time – in a house near Decatur between Sept. 17 and Oct. 8, 2011, and pimping them out during that time.
While prosecutors identified at least five different girls that Curry was prostituting over a two-year period, the trial focused on the two he controlled during that five-week period in the fall of 2011.
The older of the two girls became pregnant and eventually had a baby that died two days after it was born, prosecutors said.
Racine read the words of the older victim, now 20: “People say that when they go through jail for a long time, their mind is stuck in jail,” Racine read. “I feel like I’m stuck in that house.”
But public defender Gina Bernard said 183 years was a long time to serve for the “small part” of the impact on the two girls.
While acknowledging that what happened to them was “horrible,” Bernard pointed out that the younger victim had only been with Curry for two days and the older victim less than a month.
“The things that she is going through didn’t start with him,” Bernard said of the oldest victim as she pointed at Curry. “It is baggage that she carried into this situation. She was being pimped previously.”
The older victim had been in the prostitution lifestyle for about two years, Bernard said.
“I find it hard to believe that all of this hatred and this anger is being directed at him, and he’s bearing the brunt of all the other pimps,” she said.
Curry said nothing, only nodding when the judge spoke to him.
“The court is mindful that the state was willing to offer 20 years on a plea before trial,” Flake noted before handing down the 60-year sentence.
Curry, who is 48, would be 88 years old when released from prison, if he doesn’t make parole before then.
Racine said she was glad Curry was off the streets.
“The right message was sent to those who want to harm our children,” she said. “I’m hoping that he will stay in for a really long time so that he doesn’t do this to anyone else.”
She said it is now important that the victims make the parole board realize that the “small part” Bernard told the court Curry played in prostituting the young girls still has a significant impact in their lives.
“We do still have to worry about that education component because we don’t want anyone who … has in their control to release him to consider the fact that he only had them for a couple of weeks or a couple of days,” Racine said. “The damage he caused is life-long. It is extensive, and it will be with them forever.”
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