Suspect in attempted Wal-Mart kidnapping killed uncle in 2004

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By Alexis Stevens

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The man charged with trying to kidnap a 7-year-old girl from a west Georgia Wal-Mart waived a first appearance hearing Friday morning.

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Channel 2 Action News A man tries to take a child from a Wal-Mart in west Georgia.

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Channel 2 Action News, Channel 2 Action News A man tries to take a child from a Wal-Mart in west Georgia.

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Channel 2 Action News Brittney Baxter, 7, was not injured in an attempted abduction at a west Georgia Walmart.

Georgia Dept. of Corrections Thomas Andrew Woods, 25, was released from state prison in October after serving more than four years for a voluntary manslaughter conviction.

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Thomas Andrew Woods, 25, of Austell, was convicted of killing his uncle in 2004 in DeKalb County, according to documents obtained Thursday.

Woods was taken into custody and questioned before being arrested Wednesday afternoon, Bremen Police Chief Keith Pesnell told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

"We're pretty confident we've got the right guy," Pesnell said.

But as Woods was being led in handcuffs from the police department to a patrol car, he told reporters that the police had the wrong man.

"I was never there," Woods said.

According to police, Woods started talking to Brittney Baxter in the toy aisle of the Wal-Mart and then grabbed her and put his hand around her mouth.

But Brittney kicked and screamed, and the man let her go, police said. Neither she nor her mother, who was nearby in the store, was injured.

"When she told me someone had tried to get her, I just couldn't believe it," Brittney's mother, Georgeann Baxter, told Channel 2 Action News.

Store surveillance cameras captured the incident, and based on the description of the suspect's vehicle, police found Woods a few miles away in Tallapoosa, Pesnell said.

Sgt. First Class R.W. Chaffin with the Georgia State Patrol was on U.S. 78 in Tallapoosa when the lookout was dispatched, GSP spokesman Gordy Wright told the AJC. A short time later, Chaffin spotted a vehicle matching the description of the suspect's vehicle, Wright said. After stopping the car, Chaffin arrested Woods, whose description matched the lookout from police, and turned him over to Bremen police.

Woods was charged with attempted kidnapping, and additional charges are likely, Pesnell said. The suspect was being held in the Haralson County Jail, where he remained Thursday without bond. GBI agents were assisting with the investigation.

Woods was on probation at the time of his latest arrest for a voluntary manslaughter conviction, according to police.

Woods, previously of Tucker, was arrested in October 2004 after using a credit card belonging to an uncle, James Michael Price, who had been reported missing in July of that year, according to an arrest warrant obtained by the AJC.

Woods, then 17, confessed to killing Price and led police to his body, according to his court ruling. But the confession was made before the attorney he requested was present, violating his Fifth Amendment rights, and Woods pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter, a lesser charge than homicide.

Woods was released in October from the Wheeler Correctional Facility, where he had been since April 2007 following his manslaughter conviction in DeKalb, according to the state Department of Corrections. He was placed on probation after serving out his sentence.

In recent months, Woods had been living with his father in a trailer at a Cobb County campsite. It was not clear what may have prompted Woods to be in Haralson County.

The Bremen police chief praised Brittney's actions.

"She did exactly what we teach the little ones to do at a time like that," Pesnell told Channel 2.