Human trafficking charges dismissed
Brockington-Winchester was accused of holding a woman at gunpoint inside her Upper Darby apartment in January 2016. The woman testified at trial that the defendant answered her ad in an online escort service website called Backpage.com and met her at her
MEDIA COURTHOUSE » A Philadelphia man scheduled for retrial Monday on charges of human trafficking and attempted involuntary servitude instead saw those charges dismissed by Delaware County Common Pleas Court Judge James Nilon.
Troy Brockington-Winchester, 24, of South Philadelphia, was previously acquitted on charges of robbery, theft and terroristic threats following a jury trial in March. The jury could not reach a verdict on the two remaining counts, however, and Nilon declared a mistrial on those offenses only.
Brockington-Winchester was accused of holding a woman at gunpoint inside her Upper Darby apartment in January 2016. The woman testified at trial that the defendant answered her ad in an online escort service website called Backpage.com and met her at her Marshall Road apartment on the afternoon of Jan. 29.
After letting him into the apartment, she said she disrobed and turned around to see Brockington-Winchester pointing a gun at her.
“He sat me down on the bed and he tried to tie me up with plastic ties,” the woman said. “He was telling me he was going to blow my head off.”
When the plastic ties did not work, the woman said he loosely tied her hands behind her back with a headphone cord and stole $2,700.
“He was saying that if I wanted to make my money back, then I had to work for him and that he was going to take me to a hotel later on that night to make my money back,” she said. “He said, ‘If you call the cops, I’m going to come back and kill you.’”
The woman said she was able to call police after Brockington-Winchester left the apartment. She provided officers with a description of a man wearing a grey Eagles sweatshirt and sweatpants, with tattoos on his neck and a birthmark on his head.
Zip ties allegedly used in the robbery were found in the woman’s apartment, along with partial fingerprints, but Detective Matthew Roles testified that the prints were inconclusive.
The woman testified that Brockington-Winchester had asked her to text him photographs to use in another Backpage.com ad for that night and she obliged at the direction of police, using pictures of other women.
The woman said Brockington-Winchester called her later that night and told her he was on his way to collect her. He was arrested after pulling up to the apartment in a white Crown Victoria.
Four zip-ties were found inside the vest Brockington-Winchester was wearing, said Roles, and a mask was found inside the car. Also found in the car was a grey Eagles sweatshirt and sweatpants, zip ties and a black BB gun made to look like an authentic pistol.
Brockington-Winchester denied the charges at trial, claiming he previously dated the alleged victim, but they had broken up in early January 2016. When coworkers showed him the Backpage.com ad, he said he set up a meeting to confront the woman because he felt lied to.
Brockington-Winchester told defense attorney Scott Kramer that an argument broke out in the apartment and he grabbed the woman’s arms to keep her from hitting him, but did not tie her up, take her money or threaten to force her into prostitution.
Following acquittal on the three charges in March, Kramer moved to dismiss the other two charges based on a theory of collateral estoppel, which bars criminal prosecution on the same issue in more than one trial.
After receiving multiple briefs on the motion, Nilon agreed that the theory applied to this case and dismissed the two remaining charges. The judge indicated he would issue his findings and conclusions.