WASHINGTON — The man accused of snatching a woman off the street in a Philadelphia kidnapping caught on video will likely plead guilty when he appears in court next week.
Federal court records show a change of plea hearing has been scheduled for Thursday, Sept. 10 in Philadelphia for Delvin Barnes.
The 38-year-old is accused of grabbing 22-year-old Carlesha Freeland-Gaither off the street last fall, and holding her for about three days before they were eventually found in Jessup, Maryland.
Surveillance video of the abduction shows Freeland-Gaither fighting back against her attacker. The search for her included much of the D.C. area since Barnes lives southeast of Richmond.
Witnesses say Freeland-Gaither kicked out the back window of the Ford Taurus she was forced into. Investigators say Barnes had bound her.
Investigators say in court documents that Barnes confessed following his arrest. He had entered a plea of not guilty, and his defense attorneys have been granted requests to delay a trial.
That trial had been scheduled for Sept. 14.
Barnes is separately the suspect in a horrific Virginia case a month earlier.
Prosecutors in the Richmond area say he kidnapped a 16-year-old girl in the city, stuffed her in the trunk of his car then held her at his home in Charles City County where he doused her in bleach and gasoline.
She was able to run off, naked, and escape while Barnes was digging a hole.
Investigators in that case say they found DNA evidence, and used a traffic camera photo to help break the case.
The photo led them to the used-car dealer that sold the car, which has GPS tracking devices installed to track down cars that need to be repossessed. The Richmond-area investigators had linked the cases after surveillance photos from the Philadelphia case were made public. The GPS tracking then led investigators to rescue Freeland-Gaither.
Investigators looking into the Philadelphia case were able to get the surveillance video from other locations by tracking Freeland-Gaither’s debit card, and thanks to a tip from a woman in Havre de Grace, Maryland, who reported finding a cut zip-tie, candy wrappers, a potato chip bag and a Philadelphia supermarket receipt in her driveway.
The Virginia case is on hold as the federal case moves forward.
Barnes has been held since his arrest last November. He had only been out of prison for a year, after serving eight years for assaulting his ex-wife and her family in Philadelphia.
