By Beth Alston

AMERICUS — An Americus man remains in jail after he allegedly locked a woman in a storage unit.

Sumter County Sheriff’s Chief Deputy Col. Eric Bryant told the Times-Recorder that a woman called 911 from her cell phone around 3 p.m. Wednesday and said she had been locked inside a storage unit. Between the cell phone’s location and her directions, first responders reached the storage unit, located at U.S. Highway 19 North and Mary Blount Drive, a short time later. They found the woman naked, and she told authorities she had consensual sex with the man who locked her in. That man, identified as Edwin D. Stephens, 64, of 234-B W. Lester St., Americus, called authorities, and turned himself in. He told them that he had been with the woman the night before and when he left for work the following morning, she wanted to remain in the storage unit.

Stephens is charged with false imprisonment, and is incarcerated in the Sumter County Jail.

Bryant said Stephens had been released from prison within the last six months after serving 13 years for rape.

The case remains under investigation.