MISSOURI
Columbia Tribune
By THE TRIBUNE’S STAFF
Friday, April 22, 2016
A former Mid-Missouri pastor on Tuesday pleaded guilty to several sex crimes for having sex with at least three underage girls and was sentenced to four years in prison.
Travis R. Smith, 45, of California, Mo., pleaded guilty to two counts each of second-degree statutory rape and second-degree statutory sodomy and one count of sexual abuse. He appeared in Laclede County Circuit Court, where his case was transferred on a change of venue in 2015.
While he was a pastor and youth minister at First Baptist Church in Stover, Smith admitted to forcing himself on at least one teenage girl and having sex with two others. In one case he was accused of pinning down a 16-year-old girl and raping her in 1998. Smith also admitted to having sex with her again in early 1999 in the back of a friend’s truck.
The other cases happened in 2005.
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