A 29-year-old Waipahu man wanted for beating a prostitute who worked for him and threatening her with a gun was captured today in Houston.

A U.S. Marshals fugitive task force found Joseph Faauga Vaimili at a home in the early morning hours after conducting surveillance, a U.S. Marshals Service release said.

Vaimili skipped out on $250,000 bail two days before his trial for kidnapping, terroristic threatening and promoting prostitution charges began in July 2010.

The victim told a jury that she met Vaimili in a Waikiki nightclub and he made her work the streets of Waikiki and took all her money, according to media reports at the time. Vaimili beat her with a belt and drove her to remote pineapple field where he threatened her with a gun, the reports said.

His trail in Circuit Court went on without him and the jury found him guilty of all charges.

Marshals and Task Force officers tracked Vaimili to Nevada, California and Texas. He is being held at the Harris County Jail in Houston, pending his extradition back to Hawaii, where he could be sentenced to 50 years in prison.