Federal prosecutors late today filed kidnapping charges against Delvin Barnes in Philadelphia.
The criminal complaint says he admitted he was the kidnapper and offers more detail on the chilling case.
The 22-year-old victim, identified throughout by her initials, CFG, for Carlesha Freeland-Gaither, was kidnapped at about 9:40 pm on Sunday. Witnesses claim she was "resisting her abductor and screaming for help."
Philadelphia Police Detective Jim Sloan, the lead local investigator on the case, on Thursday praised the efforts of witness Dwayne Fletcher, who helped cops get a jump start.
“He witnessed it. He watched. He called the police twice. He waited for me. This man is a hero,” Sloan said, according to NBC Philadelphia. He believed that Fletcher should be given the $47,000 reward that was being offered.
A day after the abduction, the victim's ATM card was then used at a PNC Bank ATM in Aberdeen, Maryland, at about 6 p.m. on Monday; a first attempt to use it was unsuccessful, the second worked and produced $20.
Surveillance video from a Shell gas station near the bank showed the same suspect buying food and water. A receipt for the transaction showed he bought Herr's brand sour cream and onion potato chips, a 20-ounce bottle of Aquafina water, and two other grocery items. He paid with a $20 bill. Then on Tuesday, a citizen in Havre De Grace, Maryland, reported finding broken glass in her driveway and a receipt from a store in Philadelphia. One of the items was a Herr's sour cream and onion potato chips bag and a receipt from the ACME supermarket in Philadelphia.
Surveillance video from that store showed the same suspect seen in the other videos.
Investigators from Charles City County, Virginia saw the videos and believed it to be Barnes, wanted for "kidnapping, rape, and other offenses."
The car was traced to a Jessup, Maryland parking lot, where Barnes was found in the back seat, lying next to Freeland-Gaither. After he was arrested and read his rights, "Barnes admitted to abducting the victim" who was "not known to him prior to the incident," according to the criminal complaint.
Barnes is now being held on an arrest warrant issued by police in Charles City County, Virginia, near Richmond. Authorities there accuse Barnes, a grocery store worker, of kidnapping and sexually assaulting a 16-year-old girl on Oct. 1.
And Barnes has a lengthy criminal history, including a 2005 incident in which he was accused of holding his estranged wife captive, NBC Philadelphia reported. "Some men grew up having problems with women, so they take it out on women," Barnes’ uncle, Lamar Barnes, told the station. "Apparently, he’s one of them."
IN-DEPTH
— Pete Williams
First published November 6 2014, 5:44 PM