HAMPTON ROADS, Va. (WAVY) — Norfolk and Hampton police arrested Joshua Z. Smith, 25, of Hampton, late Thursday, charging him with 18 counts of communicating with a minor about sex.
He is in the Norfolk jail without bond.
Norfolk Police say Smith had sexually explicit online conversations with someone he thought was a 14-year-old girl 18 times in the past four weeks.
In reality, Smith was chatting with an undercover investigator, according to authorities.
Smith lives in his stepfather’s garage house with his pregnant girlfriend and infant child. Richard Golladay says if any of the charges against Smith are substantiated, he wouldn’t want him to come back.
“If he’s guilty, I’m done with him. If he’s not guilty then we’ll let the man upstairs decide,” he said.
Golladay says his stepson works in information technology and knows a lot about computers. He says he had no idea Smith was about to be arrested.
“None at all. He seems [like] a good kid. He has a girlfriend, they had the baby. Didn’t seem anything out of the ordinary until yesterday when the door came down,” Golladay said.
Golladay says he learned last night shortly after the bust that his stepson had been under investigation for six months. He says investigators knew that Smith lived in the garage — not the main house — and he can’t understand why they used a battering ram to smash through his front door.
“They busted the doors down after they were told that the doors in back were unlocked. Gotta love it. Only Norfolk and Hampton can decide that they can be abusive,” he said.
Smith graduated from Phoebus High School. The nature of the charges has Smith’s stepfather upset and angry because there are children in their neighborhood.
“That bothers me a whole lot, that’s one of the things that I can’t stand,” he said.
Communicating online with a minor about sex carries a minimum mandatory five-year sentence and as much as 30 years for each conviction.
Smith’s next court date is April 2.