MIAMI SPRINGS, Fla. – A Dallas woman’s chance encounter with a Memphis, Tennessee man at a South Florida mall would turn into a saga of forced prostitution across three states, ending with an incident at a hotel near the Miami International Airport, according to police.
Police said officers discovered the human trafficking victim on Oct. 10 after responding to reports of a woman screaming in distress at the Clarion Inn & Suites at 5301 NW 36th St. in Miami Springs, the very same hotel where cops arrested a Pembroke Pines couple last Thursday after accusing them of trafficking a different victim.
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According to an arrest report, after arriving at the hotel just before 6:15 p.m., Miami Springs police officers discovered the victim near the front desk wiping her bloodied nose and holding her 1-year-old daughter.
Police said Brandon Dimetie Williams, 43, who was formally arrested on Wednesday while already jailed, punched the woman “because she did not want to continue prostituting herself.”
She would later tell officers the story of how she met the man who went by the alias of “GM,” short for “Gold Mouth.”
According to the report, the woman was visiting her sister in South Florida when she met Williams at a mall.
“Williams never introduced himself as a pimp but rather approached her as someone interested in dating her,” police wrote. “She said they exchanged phone numbers and began to hang out.”
The report states that on one occasion, Williams picked up the woman and her daughter and asked her if she ever prostituted herself, to which she replied “no.”
“Look, I am a pimp,” police said he responded. “And I can put you down on some game.”
Police said he drove her to northwest Miami-Dade’s West Little River area, where he took to an area along Northwest 27th Avenue, between 79th and 91st streets, known as “the blade” for its established prostitution activity.
Williams told the woman “You’re going to work for me from here on out and if you want to go home, you must pay me my fee of $5,000,” police wrote.
“The victim, in fear for the safety of herself and her daughter, complied with his order,” the report states. “She stated that Williams kept her daughter in the vehicle while he made her work.”
Williams did that, police said, so she would continue to walk the streets.
Police said that work would not only take place in Miami-Dade County, but in Memphis and New Orleans, where Williams continued to force her to prostitute herself.
They said the woman continually told Williams she didn’t wish to perform sex work, which led him to beat her. They also said he took her identification to prevent her from leaving and forced her to install an app on her phone allowing him to track her location at all times.
“The victim recalled an incident in Memphis, while they were staying in a hotel, (when) Williams severely beat her because she wanted to leave him and go home,” a Miami Springs police officer wrote. “The victim further stated that Williams threatened her by saying, ‘You can leave, but I am going to keep your daughter.’ The victim showed me a text message exchange between her and her mother which corroborated the incident.”
After a failed attempt to prostitute her in Orlando, Williams, who was known to carry a gun, eventually took the woman back to South Florida, police said.
Police said he left town after the Oct. 10 incident at the Clarion Inn & Suites and a license plate reader placed his vehicle in Orlando the next day. He apparently went back to Memphis by Oct. 14, where another license plate reader flagged his vehicle.
However, he returned to Miami-Dade County by Tuesday, where he was taken into custody while at a pawn shop back in “the blade” on an out-of-state warrant.
A judge found probable cause to charge Williams with five felonies: Human trafficking, deriving proceeds from the support of prostitution, felon in possession of a firearm, interference with custody and false imprisonment. He also faces a misdemeanor battery charge.
According to jail records, Williams was being held in the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on a $51,500 bond.