WICHITA FALLS, Texas - A man who admitted transporting a woman from Wyoming and Colorado to Texas to engage in prostitution was sentenced this morning in federal court in Wichita Falls, announced U.S. Attorney Sarah R. Saldaña of the Northern District of Texas.
Matthew Ross Cummings, 24, most recently of Aurora, Colorado, was sentenced to 41 months in federal prison by U.S. District Judge Reed C. O’Conner. One week before his trial was to begin, Cumming pleaded guilty to an indictment charging one count of transportation of an individual to engage in prostitution.
According to documents filed in the case, on March 20, 2013, a Trooper with the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) initiated a traffic stop of a Budget rental truck travelling eastbound on Highway 287 in Wilbarger County. The Trooper also noticed that the rental truck was travelling in unison with a silver Chevrolet sedan. The driver of the rental truck was identified as Cummings. He was arrested after controlled substances were found in the passenger and storage areas of the truck.
An iPad located in the rental truck contained a journal written by a female who indicated in the journal that she was a prostitute and Cummings was her pimp. When confronted, Cummings admitted he was a pimp and made all the money. He also admitted that the Budget truck was rented on March 19, 2013 in Denver, Colorado, and was due to be returned to Budget in Houston, Texas on March 25, 2013.
Another DPS Trooper located the silver sedan travelling east in Clay County, Texas. After a traffic stop, the female passenger said she was travelling with Cummings and the car she was travelling in belonged to Cummings, who was driving a Budget rental truck. She confirmed that she wrote the journal that law enforcement found on the iPad. She advised that she had worked as a prostitute for Cummings for approximately one year and that she gave Cummings all of the money she earned.
The female said that she and Cummings went on trips to make money. Cummings admitted that on February 6, 2013, he checked into a hotel in Casper, Wyoming, and that same day, created an online advertisement for the female’s prostitution services in Casper. That advertisement was renewed/modified approximately 10 times from February 6 - Feb. 10, 2013. The female’s prostitution services were offered in Casper as recently as March 17, 2013.
Texas DPS investigated. Assistant U.S. Attorney Mary Walters prosecuted.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
