State v. Thoraz Xavier Smallwood, C-08-CR-23-000855
LA PLATA, MD—Tony Covington, State’s Attorney for Charles County, announced that on Wednesday, June 4, 2025, Charles County Circuit Court Judge Makeba Gibbs sentenced Thoraz Xavier Smallwood, 39, of Waldorf, to 15 years in prison for the Sexual Abuse of a Minor and Second-Degree Assault.
Smallwood will be on supervised probation for five years upon release and is required to register as a lifetime Tier III Sex Offender. If Smallwood violates the terms of his probation, he faces an additional 20 years in prison.
On January 13, 2025, Smallwood entered a guilty plea to the above-mentioned charges.
On June 6, 2023, a detective with the Charles County Sheriff’s Office spoke with the juvenile victim regarding the abuse. The victim reported that she was sexually assaulted by Smallwood on numerous occasions.
An investigation revealed that Smallwood was introduced to the victim when she was 7 or 8 years old and became like a father figure to her. Smallwood began grooming the victim and ultimately shared a residence with her. When the victim was 14 years old, Smallwood started engaging in sexual intercourse and other sexual acts with her. The abuse happened repeatedly over the course of a year at multiple locations in Charles County.
The victim reported the abuse to her mother, who then contacted the police.
During sentencing, Assistant State’s Attorney Jonathan Beattie, requesting a 25-year sentence, called Smallwood’s grooming of the victim “abhorrent.” He stated this was a “relationship that [Smallwood] changes, perverts, and uses to take advantage of the victim. – There is no greater injury that you can place on a child than to take on a [father-figure] role and ruin it for them.”
Before sentencing Smallwood, the Honorable Judge Gibbs stated that Smallwood was “a very dangerous person” and that the “harm was beyond extreme.” She furthered that he left “a path of destruction not only for the victim herself but also her family.”
Sentence
Count 1
• Sex Abuse of a Minor
• 25 years suspend all but 15 years
Count 9
• Second-Degree Assault
• 10 Years all suspended
• Consecutive to Count 1
5 Years of Supervised Probation