OAKLAND — Alameda County prosecutors have charged a 41-year-old man with trafficking a woman over three years, during which time police estimate she turned over $500,000 in prostitution proceeds to him.
Renford Grant Evans was charged with human trafficking, pimping, assault with a firearm, assault likely to produce great bodily injury, brandishing a weapon in public, gun possession and criminal threats. The charges stem from February incidents, including one where the alleged victim was picked up by an undercover cop posing as a man looking to pay for sex.
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Though Evans described by police investigators as a “Romeo” pimp — someone who manipulates potential sex workers with charisma and sweet talk — he is also accused of attacking the woman on Feb. 16 at an Oakland hotel, after she allegedly started talking to another man. Police allege that in his rage he pointed a gun at her and said, “I’ll shoot you.”
On Feb. 25, Oakland police detained the woman during the undercover sting on International Boulevard — a place known for prostitution — then later identified Evans as her pimp since 2022. They allege that Evans would hold her to a quota of $1,000 per day, which she’d be beaten for failing to meet.
During the investigation, police identified a second man, who they say began pimping the woman after the Feb. 16 incident. The 34-year-old man allegedly fled from officers in an Infiniti on Feb. 20, during a vice operation along International Boulevard. He was arrested on Feb. 27 for allegedly resisting arrest and pandering, but has not been charged, records show.
Evans is being held at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin without bail. On Monday, a judge is set to consider a defense bail motion seeking his release, court records show.
The charging documents say that Evans has prior convictions for statutory rape and lewd acts with a minor. Those stem from a 2014 case in Sacramento, where Evans was accused of sexually abusing a teen girl. Media reports at the time say that he was accused of making the victim his “sex slave” and that he agreed to an interview with a reporter at the county jail, describing himself as a loving father, but refusing to address the criminal charges.
