Five suspects charged in the kidnapping of a North Carolina man gave reasons Tuesday why they should be freed on bond.
But only two things were certain after they went before a judge: more suspects in the abduction of Frank Arthur Janssen were being sought, and no one in custody was going free Tuesday.
"Several other subjects … are at large, and the investigation continues to learn the identifications and whereabouts of those individuals," Assistant U.S. Attorney Ryan Buchanan said Tuesday in court.
Jenna Paulin Martin, Tiana Maynard, Jevante Price, Michael Montreal Gooden and Clifton James Roberts were arrested last week and charged in the kidnapping of Janssen from his Wake Forest, N.C., home April 5. An elite FBI hostage rescue team freed Janssen from an apartment on New Town Circle in southeast Atlanta late Wednesday night.
Authorities in North Carolina say Janssen's kidnapping was orchestrated by Kelvin Melton, a reputed high-ranking member of the "Bloods" gang who is serving life without parole after being prosecuted by Janssen's daughter, an assistant district attorney in Wake County, N.C. Melton was found guilty in 2012 of planning from New York the murder of a man in North Carolina.
Melton, who authorities say helped plan the abduction from his prison cell using a contraband mobile phone, has been charged with conspiracy to commit kidnapping.
"This case represents an attack on our justice system," Buchanan said.
Tuesday in court Martin, 21, waived her right to a detention and other subsequent hearings in Georgia Northern District Court in Atlanta.
Maynard said that she participated in the kidnapping plot against her will.
"She was being coerced and threatened," attorney Elizabeth Rogan said of her 20-year-old Warner Robbins client. "One of the defendants has in his possession her birth certificate and the birth certificates of her four children. They were being threatened."
Rogan says Clifton James Roberts, along with other unknown suspects, intimidated Maynard into joining the plot.
Buchanan said Maynard was one of the women who convinced Janssen to open his door on April 5 before initiating the attack, and she was a primary point of communications with Melton.
"The investigation reveals a witness who said Ms. Maynard admitted to the ruse they used to get inside," Buchanan said. "Ms. Maynard's phone made 99 calls with Melton. Information showed there had been discussion on Ms. Maynard's phone about disposing the body."
Authorities said Roberts drove the truck that Melton allegedly directed co-conspirators to use to carry Janssen away after killing him. When Roberts was arrested with Maynard and Martin in his truck, federal officials also found a shovel, a pick-axe and a .45-caliber handgun, prosecutors said.
While Buchanan said that Roberts wasn't part of the group that "bum-rushed Mr. Janssen's door and assaulted him" in Wake Forest, Roberts allegedly sublet the Austell apartment where Janssen was held.
"Mr. Roberts at some point went to that apartment while Mr. Janssen was bound and moaning inside," Buchanan said.
Roberts' attorney, Vionnette Johnson, explained the articles found inside her client's truck when he was arrested.
"The reason he had a shovel and pick in the car was because the water pipes had burst in his mother's front yard and he was carrying them to make repairs," she said. "Of course, he had a pistol. This is a man that works and gets off work at midnight."
U.S. District Judge Gerrilyn G. Brill felt there was enough evidence to keep the 29-year-old Roberts off the streets.
"The circumstantial evidence is very strong that he was involved," Brill said.
Maynard's attorney told the judge that her client said Gooden and Price were only at the Austell apartment the night of the arrest because they were watching her four children.
Price told authorities that he was to watch Janssen later that evening with Gooden, and then showed law enforcement officials where to find the victim, prosecutors said.
His attorney, Bill Morrison, said Price, 20, suffered from mental issues and suggested that investigators might have taken advantage of his mental deficiency.
"It's important that the court consider Mr. Price's diminished mental capacity," Morrison said. "And that Ms. Maynard said that my client was only watching her children."
Gooden's attorney Stanley M. Baum argued that, but for Price's words, the federal criminal complaint made no other mention of his client.
"The complaint doesn't indicate that Mr. Gooden knew that he was going to be a 'night watchman … or even knew that there was a kidnapping'," Baum said.
"The evidence against Mr. Gooden is thin," Brill said. "But I'm going to order detention based upon Mr. Price saying that he was going to be night watchman. He lived in the apartment where the planning happened."
Maynard and Martin will be shipped back to North Carolina next week.
Roberts, Price and Gooden will appear again before Brill at 10:30 a.m., April 23 when prosecutors argue probable cause to continue with charges against the three suspects.
It is unclear when Melton will face a federal judge in North Carolina, prosecutors said on Tuesday.
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