A magistrate on Tuesday sentenced a 24-year-old Jamaican woman convicted of forcing her compatriot into prostitution to three years and eight months' imprisonment.
However, Appolonia McClain-Smith only has 31 months remaining on her sentence as she received credit for the 13 months spent awaiting trial.
The court did not make a deportation order on the completion of the sentence.
In passing sentence, Chief Magistrate Joyann Ferguson-Pratt said she believed McClain was capable of reform given her age and that she had apologized "for her actions against the people of The Bahamas and the people of her own country".
Ferguson-Pratt told the convict she hoped the experience "served as a wake-up call" as she reminded her she controlled her destiny.
Ferguson-Pratt said she hoped McClain-Smith became a better woman and mother.
She convicted McClain-Smith of trafficking in persons, unlawfully withholding the identification of a person, and transporting a person for the purpose of prostitution last month.
She was sentenced to three years and eight months on the first count and three years on the remaining counts. The sentences are to run concurrently.
The offenses were committed from May to July 2013, the court found.
The court found that McClain-Smith, who is married to a Bahamian, lured the victim to the country under the guise that she would work as a cashier.
Instead, McClain-Smith made her dance and sell her body at Magic City.
The victim testified that McClain-Smith told her how much to charge for her services. She was also told that she would have to repay McClain-Smith $1,200 for her ticket and $250 per week for rent.
The victim said she gave McLain-Smith $550 every Sunday.
The woman said that she gave McClain-Smith her passport ostensibly to get an extension from immigration officials, but it was never returned.
For her part, McClain-Smith denied the offenses, claiming that she was doing a friend a favor by collecting the victim from the airport and giving her somewhere to stay.
She said that the woman had made up the claims out of spite because she thought McClain-Smith was responsible for her subsequent detention by immigration authorities.
Ferguson-Pratt found that McClain-Smith "used psychological coercion and indirect threats of harm".

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