Another arrest has been made in the kidnapping last month of a Clayton County teenage girl.
Tony Maurice Graves, 28, was arrested Friday on allegations he conspired to abduct 14-year-old Ayvani Hope Perez in the early morning hours of Sept. 17 and fired a gun in the process, according to federal court documents.
Another man accused of planning and directing the home invasion-turned-kidnapping, Wildrego Jackson, told FBI agents that Graves, who is also known as “Tony Ware,” was one of the men depicted in sketches police circulated of the kidnappers, authorities said. The other man depicted in the sketch remains at large.
Both Graves and Jackson were indicted on Wednesday by a federal grand jury, FBI officials said.
Ayvani was taken at gunpoint by two men who entered the Ellenwood home she shares with her mother, brother and her mother’s boyfriend, after the residents failed to meet the intruders’ demands for jewelry and cash, authorities said.
One of the two men fatally shot the family dog before dragging Ayvani out of the house and into an awaiting vehicle, authorities said.
Later that morning, calls were made to the family demanding a $10,000 ransom, according to family members.
According to a federal affidavit obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Jackson, 29, implicated Graves in the kidnapping plot.
“Jackson stated Graves was the person depicted in the sketch of the black male with dreadlocks,” the affidavit said, saying Jackson also pointed Graves graves out to federal agents in mug shots from a 2012 Atlanta Police arrest.
Jackson gave agents a partial number of Graves’ cell phone, and investigators were able to match the partial number with calls on Jackson’s cell phone records, then trace the number back to Graves, according to court records.
Ayvani had been kidnapped wearing her pajamas, and investigators found surveillance footage of Graves and his girlfriend buying clothes for the teen at a metro area Wal-Mart, according to the court records
Graves has dozens of arrests in Fulton and DeKalb counties dating back to 2003 on charges ranging from drug and gun possession to aggravated assault, child abandonment and making terroristic threats, according to jail records.
He made his first appearance Tuesday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Gerrilyn G. Brill, according to federal court documents.
The kidnapping of the young teen drew widespread attention, with people posting about the case regularly on social media sites. The GBI issued a Levi’s Call alert and media crews descended on the neighborhood, including those from “Good Morning America” and the “Today” show.
Ayvani was dropped off unharmed at the Conyers home of a relative on Sept. 18, roughly 36 hours after she was taken.
Within hours of her return, FBI agents arrested Jackson and charged him in connection with the abduction.
Federal agents also arrested Juan Alberto Contreras-Rodriguez, the 40-year-old Mexican national and live-in boyfriend of Ayvani’s mother, saying he’d violated federal immigration laws and would likely be deported, officials said.
Authorities close to the investigation said that Contreras-Rodriguez, who’d been arrested in a Henry County drug sting in 2012 under the name Juan Alberto Contreras-Ramirez, was the target of the home invasion that led to Ayvani’s abduction.
He wasn’t home at the time of the break-in.
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