PHILADELPHIA -- Charles City County resident Delvin Barnes pleaded guilty in the U.S. District Court in Philadelphia to abducting a Philadelphia woman. Carlesha Freeland-Gaither’s abduction on November 2 was captured on a surveillance video in Philadelphia and sparked a manhunt involving the FBI, Philadelphia police, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the U.S. Marshal’s Service.
He was sentenced to 35 years in prison, according to a report from KYW.
Freeland-Gaither, 22, was found in Jessup, Maryland on November 5. Barnes, 37, was arrested that same day after police tracked him down using his car’s GPS device.
Barnes forced the victim to lie bound and cold in the trunk of his car as he drove from Philadelphia to Maryland, court documents said. When he was arrested in Maryland, he was in the back seat of his car, lying next to the victim.
That video evidence is one reason why Barnes may change his plea, according to WTVR CBS 6 legal analyst Todd Stone.
"By pleading guilty, Barnes will not be going to trial, he will not have a chance to appeal, he will be waiving his right to plea insanity," Stone added. "There are many things Barnes waives when he pleads guilty."
Barnes' plea hearing comes just four days before his trial was scheduled to start.
Virginia abduction
Late last year, prosecutors in Charles City County opted to set aside, or in legal terms nolle prosse, charges against Barnes. Barnes was previously charged with abduction, forcible rape, malicious wounding with a chemical and other charges related to the early October disappearance of a 16-year-old girl from Richmond, according to investigators.
That girl managed to escape after two days, walking two miles, naked and burned, into a business to seek help.
