Indiana mom kidnaps woman in search for witness in her son’s criminal trial, feds say
An Indiana mom accused of helping kidnap and beat a woman who was then shot and “left for dead” in search of a witness in her son’s criminal trial is heading to prison.
This comes after 48-year-old Patricia Carrington, of Gary, Indiana, pleaded guilty to kidnapping, according to a Nov. 23 news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Indiana. She was sentenced to 210 months in prison — or 17.5 years — and three years of supervised release following completion of her prison sentence.
The defense attorney representing Carrington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Carrington was one of three people involved in the kidnapping of a woman walking home from work near a cemetery in Griffith, Indiana, on April 14, 2019, according to court records obtained by McClatchy News. The woman knew Carrington and her son for about five years.
A driver in a gray car cut her off, when a male passenger stepped out, hit the woman in the back of her head with a handgun and forced her inside, the government’s sentencing memorandum says. Carrington helped stop the woman from fleeing, officials say, and took her cell phone. She also tore up the victim’s shirt to check for a second phone.
The man duct-taped the woman’s hands and Carrington covered her eye’s with a sock before wrapping more duct tape around her head, according to authorities.
In the car, Carrington was involved in asking the woman questions about how to find her sister-in-law, records show. The sister-in-law was scheduled to testify as a victim in a case involving Carrington’s son the next day.
If the victim refused to answer a question, officials say her face and legs were beaten. She was also choked, and her hair was pulled.
She was removed from the car, where she “pleaded for her life because the ground was very wet and she thought they were leading her into a body of water to drown her,” officials say.
The woman was then shot in the face before she fell to the ground, records say. About five more shots were fired as the victim did not move. One of the bullets “grazed her arm,” and others hit the ground around her head.
After hearing the car drive away, the woman stayed on the ground, near an abandoned home, for about 20 minutes while “fearing for her safety.” She eventually moved behind abandoned houses and tried to find help in case the suspects were still nearby.
The woman was eventually treated at a hospital and released.
In an FBI and police investigation, officials discovered doorbell camera surveillance video that showed the woman “banging on the door screaming for help, bleeding from her face and mouth with duct tape around her neck and wrists.”
Two days later, she was able to identify Carrington and the male suspect from photos presented by authorities, according to court records.
The man has also pleaded guilty in connection to the case, records show, and had not been sentenced as of Nov. 16.
Weight loss pills sold online had a poisonous ingredient in them, feds say
Car and sex for sale were part of Ohio man’s ploy to rob interested buyers, feds say
‘Con man’ tricked friends out of $391,000 with fake roofing contracts in Texas, feds say
