{"id":61818,"date":"2025-05-31T03:40:15","date_gmt":"2025-05-31T03:40:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pulsperry.com\/?p=61818"},"modified":"2025-05-31T03:40:15","modified_gmt":"2025-05-31T03:40:15","slug":"she-sold-her","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pulsperry.com\/?p=61818","title":{"rendered":"She Sold Her"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Racquel \u201cKelly\u201d Smith, the mother of 6-year-old Joshlin Smith, has been sentenced to life in prison alongside two other men in connection with the trafficking of her child
Jacquen Appollis and Steveno van Rhyn have also been sentenced by a judge in South Africa
Judge Nathan Erasmus said during the sentencing on Thursday, May 29 that \u201cthere is nothing that I can find that is redeeming and deserving of a lesser sentence than the harshest I can impose\u201d
A South African mother and two others were sentenced to life in prison this week for trafficking the woman\u2019s 6-year-old daughter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Racquel \u201cKelly\u201d Smith, who was convicted on kidnapping and trafficking charges earlier in May after authorities claimed she possibly sold her daughter to a local healer, was sentenced on Thursday, May 29, alongside boyfriend Jacquen Appollis and friend Steveno van Rhyn, according to CNN, CBS News and the BBC. The sentencing comes more than a year after Smith\u2019s daughter, Joshlin Smith, went missing from her Saldanha Bay home in February 2024. She remains missing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Judge Nathan Erasmus sentenced Smith and the two men to life in prison for human trafficking, as well as a concurrent 10 years for kidnapping, per CBS News.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the sentencing, the South African judge said the mother showed \u201cno indication of remorse\u201d over her daughter\u2019s disappearance, with CBS News noting that the courtroom cheered amid the verdict. \u201cThere is nothing that I can find that is redeeming and deserving of a lesser sentence than the harshest I can impose,\u201d Judge Erasmus said.
Per both CNN and CBS News, Erasmus said that the fact that the perpetrators were drug users was not an excuse for their actions. Joshlin\u2019s grandmother was also present in court, wearing a T-shirt featuring Joshlin\u2019s face.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On May 2, Smith was convicted of trafficking her daughter, Reuters reported earlier this month, with the BBC also reporting that Appollis and van Rhyn were found guilty on their respective kidnapping and trafficking charges in connection with the girl\u2019s disappearance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Per the BBC, a neighbor at the trial testified that Smith confided in her about plans to sell her daughter to a traditional healer who \u201cwanted her for her eyes and skin\u201d before the child vanished. All three denied involvement in Joshlin\u2019s disappearance at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lourentia Lombaard, Smith\u2019s neighbor, testified that the mother told her she \u201cdid something silly\u201d and \u201csold my child to a sangoma\u201d \u2014 a traditional South African healer \u2014 adding that she also offered her money in exchange for her silence, the BBC previously noted. Joshlin\u2019s teacher reportedly added at the trial that Kelly told her Joshlin was \u201con a ship, inside a container, and they were on the way to West Africa.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Edna Maart, Joshlin\u2019s teacher, described the girl as a \u201cvery tidy\u201d and quiet student, per the outlet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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According to the BBC, a pastor also testified that the mother once spoke of selling her children for 20,000 rand (roughly $1,100) each.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The BBC previously reported that a woman believed to be a healer was arrested and questioned while authorities were searching for Joshlin before being released due to a lack of evidence. Smith broke into tears when her guilty verdict was read earlier this month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More than 17,000 kidnappings took place in South Africa during the 2023\/2024 financial year, according to CBS News, which cites police statistics. That marked an 11% increase over the previous year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

also read…<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Racquel \u201cKelly\u201d Smith, the mother of 6-year-old Joshlin Smith, has been sentenced to life in prison alongside two other men in connection with the trafficking of her… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":61820,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pulsperry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61818"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pulsperry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pulsperry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pulsperry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pulsperry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=61818"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pulsperry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61818\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":61821,"href":"https:\/\/pulsperry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61818\/revisions\/61821"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pulsperry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/61820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pulsperry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=61818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pulsperry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=61818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pulsperry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=61818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}