Who is Mercedes Carrera? Porn star and husband who had sex with minor have trial put off 12th time
RANCHO CUCAMONGA, CALIFORNIA: Former adult film star Mercedes Carrera, who is currently facing jail time on charges of sexual abuse of a minor, has had her court trial date delayed for the 12th time in two years.
Carrera, 38, and her husband Jason Whitney aka Daemon Cins, 45, were arrested in February 2019 for sexually abusing a child. The couple has been charged with 10 counts of sexual penetration or oral sex with a minor below 10 years of age. They are also facing charges for subjecting the child to sexual intercourse and sodomy.
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Who is Mercedes Carrera?
Born as Melinda Smith on November 30, 1982, the adult film actress grew up in Los Angeles, California. She belongs to German, Swedish, Puerto Rican, and Lakota descent.
She attended high school in Los Angeles and later earned a graduate degree in Cryogenic Engineering (Optical space test) from California State University, as per Logical Daily. She had mentioned in a tweet once that she had worked in telecom and aerospace engineering prior to joining the porn industry. She had also spent a year in law school.
Smith, who appeared in porn films as Mercedes Carrera, has earned popularity in the adult film industry for starring in over 25 films. The 38-year-old star last appeared in a film in 2019, before her arrest.
Carrera's net worth had been estimated at $600,000 as of 2018. She is married to 43-year-old fellow porn actor and adult film producer Jason Whitney, who appeared in porn films by the screen name Daemon Cins.
Why were Carrera and Cins arrested?
Aside from the sexual abuse of a female child, the couple was also arrested on charges of meth possession as well as keeping loaded guns at home. They were arrested from their home in Rancho Cucamonga in California in February 2019, after the local police received information about the alleged abuse in January 2019.
The alleged victim was later identified by Carrera and by the District Attorney as Carrera's daughter from a previous relationship. Carrera and the child's father were estranged over custody issues at the time of the allegations, which were made by the child in the presence of her father and a male police officer from the local precinct in Twin Peaks, Calif.
The Rancho Cucamonga Police were first made aware of the alleged sexual assault on a minor on January 31. Smith and her husband stand accused of "inappropriate touching, oral copulation and digital penetration." After searching Smith and Whitney's home police found evidence corroborating their extensive interview with the young girl, finding two loaded handguns and a bedroom "set" for recording pornographic videos. The abuse allegedly occurred over a four-month period. Both the guns and drugs charges were dropped after the preliminary hearing.
The original police statement from the time of their arrest did not mention the duo as married, but it was updated later after Cins's Twitter bio and social media posts identified Carrera as his wife.
Cins and Carrera have been incarcerated since 2019 without a court trial yet since their hearing keeps on being postponed. This time, Judge Katrina West from San Bernardino County Superior Court delayed the hearing without providing any explanation. As of now, their pre-trial hearing has been set for March 5, 2021. Judge West has ordered the trial to start before April 26, 2021.