A Manhattan jury found a man guilty of sex trafficking for pimping out two hookers — even though one of the women testified on his behalf, saying she loves him and telling jurors that of her own free will she turned $1,000 a pop tricks for everyone from NYPD cops to Chicago judges.
After more than two full days of deliberations, the jury found Karmik Grant-Byas guilty of forcing that woman, Jennifer Encarnacion, 22, and another prostitute to turn tricks.
But the panel cleared him of sex trafficking charges tied to two other women. He was also convicted of promoting prostitution.
Encarnacion, who even paid part of Grant-Byas’ lawyer fees, broke into tears as she left Manhattan Supreme Court.
“Honestly, I just want to smack everyone,” she told The Post. “I’m definitely upset, but I know my ability to get money so at the end of the day, we’re going to put up a fight.”
She added, “I love him and always will.”
The curvy vixen, sporting Louboutin stillettos and a Gucci purse, took the stand last week before Justice Bonnie Wittner.
“I’m not a victim,” she insisted. “This is what I choose to do.”
She told jurors that she makes as much as $5,000 a night and that cops, lawyers and even judges have paid to have sex with her in posh Manhattan hotels.
The sex worker insisted that Grant-Byas is “a good person” — even though he repeatedly burnt her arm with a flat iron, broke her tooth and busted her lip, according to prosecutors who showed jurors gruesome pictures of the abuse.
Prosecutor Jennifer Dolle argued in her closing that Grant-Byas used brutal violence to force four victims to “sell their bodies and earn him his money.”
“My pimpin’ ain’t made for weak b—hes,” he told his cadre of hookers who lived with him in South Amboy, N.J., and travelled to the city nightly to work.
One of the alleged victims disrespected him and he told a pal, “I stomped that b—h ribs.”
Defense lawyer Howard Greenberg conceded in his summation that Grant-Byas is a “scumbag” and “low-life” pimp but not a sex trafficker.
“These hoes committed voluntary sex acts moved by the spirit of free will,” he said.
“Welcome to the not-so-wonderful world of promoting prostitution where men who hate women and women who hate themselves are joined at the hip.”
Greenberg said he’d appeal. Grant-Byas faces up to 25 years in prison on the sex trafficking conviction.