A Maryland man was sentenced to 20 years in prison after a hotel maid captured him battering a woman who attempted to leave a prostitution ring.

Bethesda Magazine reported that Marcus Jamal Lindsey, 23, of Wheaton, Maryland, was convicted of assault and human trafficking charges in December for the March 3 incident.

The 23-year-old and two women were in the Rockville hotel room for two days. Police said Lindsey took Backpage.com ads out for the women and forced them to carry out sexual acts while he took all the money. One woman later told authorities that Lindsey choked and punched her when she wanted to leave.

According to the Washington Post, a maid who worked at the hotel heard commotion in the room while she was cleaning the hallway and pulled out her phone to record it. Along with the sound of slapping and punching, the woman can be heard saying “Marcus, stop it!” and “I don’t want no part in this life!”

The maid and the beaten women eventually got together, and the maid called 911 on her behalf. Though the woman later spoke to police, they have since lost track of her.

And because of this, Lindsey seemed to think this mean he could walk free — based on a recorded conversation in jail after his arrest.

“So if there’s no victim, I should be good on this right?” Lindsey said in a recorded call from the Montgomery County jail.

But the judge presiding over the case intended to pursue the maximum sentence.

“You are a master manipulator,” Montgomery County Circuit Court Judge Nelson Rupp told Lindsey. “You’re a predator, and you’re a danger.”

The Washington Post pointed out that it’s unlikely Lindsey will serve the full 20-year sentence. Convicted of human trafficking and second-degree assault, under Maryland parole rules these are considered nonviolent charges. As a result, the 23-year-old will be eligible for parole after serving five years—or 25 percent of his sentence.

Montgomery County State’s Attorney’s Office spokesman Ramon Korionoff praised the hotel maid for stopping Lindsey.

“If not for the heroic actions of a hotel staff person to record the assault by Mr. Lindsey upon the woman he was trafficking, we may not have been able to convict this man of using backpage.com to ply his evil trade of what [Judge Rupp] called actions akin to ‘modern human slavery’.”

Korionoff continued, “Mr. Lindsey will have a long time in prison to think about what he did to young women for his own benefit and against their will.”

Photo: Montgomery County State Attorney’s Office