EATONVILLE, Fla. – An Eatonville man accused of forcing two women into prostitution for months is facing new charges after after a jail phone call led police to new evidence against him.
Franklyn Gumbs Jr., 29, was arrested Tuesday after two women went to the hospital Monday and told police Gumbs punched them in the face and was holding them against their will.
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The victims said Gumbs forced them into prostitution at Orlando area hotels. One of the victims said she was held against her will for six months, according to the police report.
According to the arrest warrant, Gumbs put a gun in one victim's mouth and told her if she ever leaves him he would kill her. The victims said Gumbs followed their ever move, phone call and text and watched them even when they were in the bathroom.
Both women asked for help when they got to the Advent Health hospital, according to the report.
Personal property of both victims, including IDs, birth certificates and cellphones, were found in a safe at Gumbs' home in Eatonville, police said.
After Gumbs was arrested, police said he called his brother Tuesday and told him to go to his home and dig up an area under the grill to destroy any items he buried there, according to an arrest affidavit.
Gumbs said in the call he also had his passports hidden inside air conditioning vents and asked his brother to destroy them, records show.
After police heard that call they asked an Orange County judge for another warrant to search Gumbs' home on Wednesday.
Eatonville police said they found two plastic bags buried 3 feet under the grill. The bags contained three boxes of ammo, .380 caliber bullets, .45 caliber bullets, two prescription pills, a magazine clip, a baby towel, a cellphone, a 9 mm firearm with the serial number scraped off and a fully loaded extended magazine with 22 bullets.
Officers also found U.S. and European Union passports inside the A/C vents, according to the report.
Gumbs was arrested and charged with forcing another to prostitution, false imprisonment, altering or removal of firearm serial number, possession of a gun with altered serial number and possession of a controlled substance.