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Authorities: Man held knife to grandmother’s throat, made her drive for nearly 12 hours while he smoked meth

Posted at 9:18 PM, Mar 13, 2016
and last updated 2016-03-13 21:18:22-04

Robert White, 22, allegedly held a knife to his grandmother’s throat and told her to drive after she picked him up from a hotel Saturday.

White “smoked methamphetamine and rambled about the police following him for the past nine months” as his grandmother drove through the night, the Marion County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.

Nearly 12 hours later, White called 911, according to officials. The call helped deputies track down the car, the sheriff’s office said. The grandmother, who authorities have not identified, was not harmed.

The ordeal began, authorities allege, after White’s grandmother told him he had to leave a hotel room where she’d paid for him to stay for a couple of days.

White “is suspected of using methamphetamine heavily, and his family has been struggling to help him,” the sheriff’s office said.

White is now in jail, facing charges of unlawful possession of methamphetamine, kidnapping, menacing, criminal mischief and violation of a protective order.

It was not immediately clear whether he had obtained legal representation.