Cadet Gets Court-Martial and Prison Time in Sex Case
A military jury sentenced a Coast Guard cadet to six months in prison and kicked him out of the service Wednesday for extorting sexual favors from a classmate.
Cadet Webster M. Smith, the first student court-martialed in the academy’s 130-year history, was acquitted of rape but had faced up to five years and seven months for extortion, sodomy, indecent assault and other charges.
Defense attorneys for Smith, 23, of Houston, asked the jury to spare him jail time, saying the stigma of his conviction would follow him forever. He will not graduate from the Coast Guard Academy and must register as a sex offender in Texas.
“I am ashamed to have been the first cadet to have been court-martialed, but I am proud of my decision to fight for my career and freedom,” Smith told the jury.
Prosecutors had asked the jury to send Smith to prison for three years.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
