GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Jerome Christopher Mitchell, 43, was arrested yesterday after allegedly holding a woman against her will for approximately one week inside a room at an abandoned hotel.
According to the victim’s account to a Gainesville Police Department officer, Mitchell invited her to the abandoned hotel where he had been staying. After she entered the room, however, he allegedly began yelling and threatening her. The woman said Mitchell warned that he would kill her if she tried to leave, causing her to remain inside out of fear. She escaped yesterday after prying open the door while Mitchell was away.
The woman also told police that Mitchell forced her to ingest and inhale drugs, including what she described as “crack” and “ice,” during the week she was allegedly confined.
After being read his Miranda rights, Mitchell reportedly acknowledged inviting the woman to the hotel but denied forcing her to stay there.
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The hotel’s location was redacted from the copy of the police report provided to the Alachua Chronicle, though that information is expected to become available Monday. Separately, another defendant was arrested October 2 and charged with eight counts of sexual battery involving a juvenile victim at the former Wyndham Garden Hotel, located at 2900 SW 13th Street.
Mitchell faces a false imprisonment charge. His record includes one nonviolent felony conviction and seven nonviolent misdemeanor convictions. He was also arrested in February 2026 after allegedly threatening to kill a woman with a knife, but prosecutors later dropped the charges in that case. Judge Craig DeThomasis set Mitchell’s bail at $10,000.