Dallas Man Gets 20 Years for Holding Woman Captive, Beating Her With Hammer and Other Objects

DALLAS - A 44-year-old man has been sentenced to 20 years in prison after prosecutors said he held a woman captive in a commercial garage and repeatedly strangled and beat her with a curtain rod, hammer, wrench and metal flashlight.

Gilbert Chavez-Cloyd Franco Jr. pleaded guilty to aggravated assault with a deadly weapon involving family violence. He was sentenced June 22, with the court also entering affirmative findings of family violence and use of a deadly weapon.

According to prosecutors, the 54-year-old victim was kept inside a commercial garage without access to a phone for several days while Franco assaulted her.

On Dec. 3, 2024, the woman arrived at her parents' home battered and bruised. Her parents immediately took her to an emergency room, where she remained hospitalized for about a week.

Prosecutors said she suffered multiple broken bones and a lacerated spleen.

The woman later reunited with Franco, and prosecutors said the abuse continued. Her parents eventually filed a missing-person report.

During a later incident, the woman managed to text her father asking for help. Dallas Police responded to her location, found her and arrested Franco.

As prosecutors prepared for trial, investigators reviewed jail calls in which Franco threatened to kill the victim's entire family, according to the Dallas County District Attorney's Office. Prosecutors said he also instructed his mother to repeatedly go to the victim's home and attempted to develop new versions of events for his father, who had driven the injured woman to her parents' house in December.

Prosecutors also presented evidence of previous police reports involving Franco in several Dallas-Fort Worth area cities. During the punishment phase, the mothers of both of Franco's children and his daughter testified about their own experiences with him.

Franco ultimately pleaded guilty on the morning his trial was scheduled to begin.

The victim now lives in Hurst, and the Hurst Police Department assisted Dallas Police with the investigation.

Dallas County prosecutor Miranda Salazar led the case with Cassidy Richardson serving as second chair. DA investigator John Ludwigs also assisted.