GA Supreme Court: new definition of kidnapping

The Supreme Court of Georgia has adopted a new legal standard for the crime of kidnapping, ruling that prosecutors must consider four factors before deciding that significant enough movement of a victim has occurred to warrant the charge of kidnapping. In a split 4-to-3 decision written by Presiding Justice Carol Hunstein, the Court has overturned a Georgia Court of Appeals decision and thrown out kidnapping charges against Joey Allen Garza of Lee County. The high court has upheld his convictions for false imprisonment and aggravated assault.

At issue is the amount of movement required to establish kidnapping. Traditionally, the movement requirement was one of great distance. “In its earliest incarnation, the common law crime of kidnapping required the movement of the victim out of the country,” the 18-page opinion says. Georgia’s first kidnapping statute required that the victim be transported across state or county lines. But increasingly, the majority finds, the state’s kidnapping law has been used to charge people with the more serious charge of kidnapping when the facts support the less serious crime of false imprisonment.

Ga. Supreme Court adopts new kidnapping standards

Georgia's top court adopted a new legal standard for kidnapping, ruling that prosecutors must consider four factors before deciding to pursue kidnapping charges.

The Georgia Supreme Court's 4-3 decision Monday requires prosecutors to consider how far the victim was taken and whether the movement endangered the victim.

It also says authorities should weigh whether the movement occurred during the commission of a separate crime and whether it was a key part of that second crime.

The new standards came as part of an 18-page ruling that threw out kidnapping charges against Joey Allen Garza of Lee County. The court upheld his convictions for false imprisonment and aggravated assault.

Click here for more GPB News coverage about this issue.

(AP)

Accused murderer, molester wants new jury

Lawyers for a man charged with kidnapping, molesting and killing a 6-year-old boy say his charges should be dismissed because the grand jurors who indicted him were not diverse enough. David Edenfield, his wife, Peggy Edenfield and their adult son, George Edenfield, are accused of kidnapping, molesting and strangling Christopher Michael Barrios Jr., who is Hispanic, in 2007 in their trailer at a mobile home park. The lawyers tried to convince the Glynn County Superior Court Judge to dismiss the indictment by arguing Hispanics were underrepresented among potential grand jurors. They also want the trial moved to another county.

Hostage Standoff Continues in Madison

Multiple agencies are currently involved this morning in an armed standoff with a kidnapping suspect in Madison. Officials with the FBI, GBI and Morgan County Sheriff’s Department are on the scene trained on a motel room in the east Georgia town just off Interstate-20. The standoff has now extended to about 11 hours.

Authorities say 25-year-old David Dietz is a former South Carolina police officer--he’s accused in a Saturday night abduction of three people in South Carolina, including the man’s estranged wife and a seven-month-old infant.

Authorities in an updated briefing this morning say they are making progress in negotiations with the alleged abductor.

Bond denied for hiker's alleged attacker

Today a judge denied bond for a 61-year-old man accused of kidnapping missing hiker Meredith Emerson. Gary Michael Hilton did not speak during his first appearance before Union County Magistrate Judge. Hilton's attorney did not enter a plea on Hilton's behalf. Emerson's whereabouts remain a mystery as authorities continue to search for her in the north Georgia mountains where she disappeared New Year’s Day.

UPDATE: Man charged in hiker disappearance

The man believed last seen with a missing female hiker in the north Georgia mountains was officially charged in the case Saturday. 61-year-old Gary Michael Hilton was charged with kidnapping with bodily injury, in connection to the disappearance of 24-year-old Meredith Emerson. Authorities now do not believe Emerson is alive.

The arrest warrant for Hilton was signed by a Union County Superior Court judge late Saturday afternoon. Hilton was expected to be transferred from custody in metro Atlanta, where he's been held by DeKalb County police, to Union County.

Breaks in the case came Friday night, when phone tips led police to finding Hilton at a metro Atlanta conveinence store. His Chevy Astro van was also recovered. At a different location, near Cumming, Emerson's dog 'Ella' was recovered safely when it had wandered into a Kroger store. A Georgia Bureau of Investigation spokesman confirmed that from one of the sites, evidence was recovered that indicated Emerson had suffered "bodily injury".

Emerson has been missing since Tuesday, when she went for a hike with her dog in the area of Blood Mountain in north Georgia. Several witnesses said a man fitting the description of Hilton was seen at some point Tuesday afternoon walking with Emerson.

Authorities and volunteers on Saturday completed a fourth day of searching for any sign of Emerson. The search had been narrowed to a 5-mile area of terrain in the mountains. Because the disappearance happened on national park land, federal agencies, along with the FBI, are now involved in the case.

Searchers expect to be back out in the area early Sunday morning. Authorities now are calling this a search-and-recovery operation, instead of search-and-rescue.

UPDATE: Body of missing hiker found Monday night

A spokeswoman for the family of Meredith Emerson confirmed Monday night that the body of the missing 24-year-old hiker had been found. No other details were given, only to confirm that authorities had recovered the body of Meredith Emerson. A news conference was scheduled for 10pm Monday night in Dawsonville.

The discovery ends a search for Emerson that had extended six days, since her disappearance on New Year's Day.

Earlier Monday, the man charged in the case had his first court appearance in Union County. 61-year-old Gary Michael Hilton did not respond to questions from the judge during a 10-minute hearing. The court appointed public defender indicated that Hilton was not prepared to comment. Bond was denied Hilton, who as of the time of the hearing, was facing a charge of kidnapping with bodily injury. The charge carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

Stay with gpb.org, and GPB's Radio Network for continuing details in this case.

Hiker's killer denies connection to another case

The man serving life in prison for killing a Georgia hiker denies being involved in a college student's disappearance. Gary Hilton says he's not connected to the case of 20-year-old Clemson University student Jason Knapp. Knapp was last seen Easter 1998. Hilton admitted to kidnapping and murdering 24-year-old Meredith Emerson in north Georgia in January.

Accused murderers could face death penalty

A convicted child molester and his parents could face the death penalty for allegedly kidnapping and killing a six-year-old Glynn County boy. 32-year-old George David Edenfield and his parents, David and Peggy Edenfield were indicted today in the death of Christopher Michael Barrios. A friend of the Edenfield family, Donald Dale, was indicted on charges of concealing a body and tampering with evidence. Christopher disappeared two weeks ago from near his Brunswick home. Searchers found his body nearby a week later.

Hiker's alleged attacker remains in custody

Today a judge denied bond for a drifter accused of kidnapping and killing a 24-year-old hiker in the north Georgia mountains. Gary Hilton was charged yesterday with the murder of Meredith Emerson. Emerson's body was found Monday night nearly 50 miles from where she vanished New Year's Day near Blood Mountain in Union County. Hilton led authorities to Emerson's body Monday evening in exchange for an agreement that prosecutors not seek the death penalty against him for Emerson's killing.

Hilton to fight extradition

The man serving a life sentence for murdering a Georgia hiker has vowed to fight extradition to Florida. The Herald-Gazette newspaper of Barnesville reports that Gary Michael Hilton told a judge yesterday he wished to contest the validity of murder charges against him in Florida. Authorities there believe he killed Cheryl Hodges Dunlap. Hilton pleaded guilty to murdering Meredith Emerson in January after kidnapping her from a hiking trail in north Georgia.

Court appearance today for man charged in missing hiker case

61-year-old Gary Michael Hilton will make his first court appearance today in north Georgia's Blairsville, to answer to the charge of kidnapping with bodily injury. Hilton is charged in the case of hiker Meredith Emerson, who's been missing since last Tuesday when she went for a hike in Vogel State Park near Blood Mountain.

Only trained search and rescue personnel and law enforcement will be involved in today's search, which is now being expanded to a five-county area from north Georgia to metro Atlanta.

Hilton was found and taken into custody in the metro Atlanta area Friday night-—he was charged in the case Saturday. Emerson's dog was recovered safely on Friday, when it was found wandering in a grocery store parking lot in Cumming. Police found some of Emerson's personal effects on Friday, including blood-stained clothing.

Authorities also said Sunday there may be a connection between the Emerson case and the disappearance and presumed killings of a elderly couple in North Carolina last October.

Suspect Killed in Amber Alert Abduction

Georgia authorities say a man suspected of kidnapping his ex-girlfriend's two children has been shot to death by police after trying to run over an officer with his car. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation said police caught up with25-year-old Jairo Bastos on a suburban Atlanta parking lot Friday after a motorist saw an Amber Alert describing the car and called authorities. Police found the missing 9-month-old and 22-month-old children unharmed but provided no other details. It was not immediately clear if they were in the car when Bastos was shot. Police also did not say immediately if they were the suspect's children. The children's mother Adrian Stearns called police Thursday to say Bastos had taken took off with them in her car. Bastos had recently been evicted from Stearns' apartment.

(Associated Press)

Rome drug trial begins today

A Rome man goes on trial this week in U.S District Court for alleged involvement in a drug ring in the Rome area. 45-year-old Mario Armas is said by federal prosecutors to be the ringleader of the operation. Federal authorities say he conspired with two professional rodeo workers and another man to distribute more than a ton of marijuana in the Rome-area between 2003 and 2004. The drug smuggling has been linked to other crimes, such as kidnapping, burglary, and laundering of profits from the drug deals. The trial was delayed from January to give both sides more time to sift through evidence. Testimony begins this morning.

Hostage Standoff Ends in Madison

A hostage standoff has ended at a Madison, Georgia hotel. A man who was holding three people hostage, including his infant son, surrendered Monday morning. It ended a 12-hour-plus ordeal that began 8pm Sunday night at a motel off Interstate-20 in east Georgia’s Madison.

Multiple agencies were on the scene of the standoff, including the FBI, GBI and Morgan County Sheriff’s Department. Authorities say the alleged abductor, 25-year-old David Dietz, is accused of a weekend kidnapping of his estranged wife, his seven-month old infant son, and a teenager. Authorities say Dietz is a former South Carolina police officer.

Five drug gang members convicted in Rome

Five men were convicted Monday in Rome for their part in a violent drug gang that was responsible for five murders, attempted murder and kidnapping in northwest Georgia. A federal prosecutor says the ring was based in Cedartown, and had a hand in half of the murders in Polk and Floyd counties in 2003.

The five men, all in their 30's, were convicted of conspiring to engage in a racketeering enterprise from March 2000 to December 2006. They were also found guilty of conspiring to distribute and distributing methamphetamine and cocaine. The five will be sentenced in May--15 others have pleaded guilty in the case, while another 10 await trial.

Kidnapping suspect still on the loose

A second University of Georgia student says she was kidnapped and sexually assaulted in Oglethorpe County. Police say the woman accepted a ride from the suspect on September 8th, who was acting as a taxi driver. She later escaped. This is the second reported abduction from the weekend of the Georgia-South Carolina football game in Athens. The suspect is still on the loose.

Report: Third kidnapping victim comes forward

A third woman now says a man posing as a taxi driver abducted her in northeast Georgia. The Atlanta Journal Constitution reports the University of Georgia student says she was taken by a man in a white van who offered to take her home. The incident reportedly happened in May. Two other women have come forward claiming a man in a white van abducted them in September at a UGA football game. One of the women says the man sexually assaulted her. Athens-Clarke County police say they have made no arrests.

Female students at the University of Georgia are signing up for self-defense classes in droves. The executive director of Safe Campuses Now says one self-defense class filled up in four hours last week after an e-mail went out to students. Athens-Clarke County police are asking taxi drivers in downtown Athens to keep an eye out for a man driving a white unmarked van.

UPDATE: 'Search & Recovery' For Missing Hiker

In this May 2007 photo released by Pat B. Mitchell, Meredith Emerson is seen with her dog Ella, in Flowery Branch, Ga. The 24-year-old hiker has been missing since Tuesday. (AP Photo/Courtesy of Pat B. Mitchell)

Union County Superior Court Judge David Barrett signed a warrant Saturday charging Gary Michael Hilton, 61, with kidnapping with bodily injury in the disappearance of Meredith Emerson, said Georgia Bureau of Investigation spokesman John Bankhead. Authorities served the warrant on Hilton on Saturday evening.

According to the warrant, three fleece tops were found with "substantial amounts of human blood" believed to be Emerson's inside a Dumpster beside a convenience store, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported for Sunday's editions.

The warrant also said other items were found, such as a portion of an automobile seat belt "with apparent blood transfer stains" and the rear seat belt in Hilton's 2001 Chevrolet Astro van had been cut out.

The warrant said Hilton was attempting to vacuum the vehicle and "wash portions of it with a bleach and water solution."

Bankhead said the search for the 24-year-old woman, who was hiking with her dog in the Chattahoochee National Forest, is now focused on finding her body.

"The search has changed from rescue to recovery, based on the evidence we've uncovered so far," Bankhead said.

Hilton is already in federal custody near Atlanta, held on a warrant for failure to appear in federal court for a charge of abandoning property in a national park. Bankhead said he did not know if Hilton had an attorney.

The search continued into Saturday evening. Teams focused on a 5-square-mile area of rugged mountain territory about 90 miles north of Atlanta in the Chattahoochee National Forest, near where her car was discovered Wednesday, Bankhead said.

The search had been focused on Vogel State Park, at the base of Blood Mountain in the national forest, where Emerson was last seen on New Year's Day hiking with her black Labrador retriever, Ella.

On the Net:
Meredith Emerson search: http://www.helpfindmeredith.com

The Associated Press. AP PROVIDES ACCESS TO THE PUBLICLY DISTRIBUTED HANDOUT PHOTO ABOVE. THE COPYRIGHT IS OWNED BY A THIRD PARTY.)

Click here for previous GPB News coverage of this story.

Alleged murderer could be linked to NC case

The man charged in the beating death of a Georgia hiker is being looked another woman’s disappearance in North Carolina. 26-year-old Rossana Miliani was last in Bryson City on December 7th, 2005. A store clerk from Bryson City recently told a private investigator that Miliani came into her store with a man who resembled 61-year-old Gary Hilton. Hilton is charged with kidnapping 24-year-old Meredith Emerson New Year’s Day while she was hiking at north Georgia’s Blood Mountain.