The latest suspect arrested and linked to the revenge kidnapping of a North Carolina man may have admitted to his part in the violent scheme, a relative said.
Quantavious "Kirkwood Quan" Thompson was in federal court in Atlanta on Thursday afternoon to hear the charges against him after his Wednesday arrest in connection with the April 5 abduction of Frank Arthur Janssen.
The 18-year-old Thompson gave his mother, Demetrius Cash, a kiss on the cheek before he was led from the courtroom.
"My son said he did participate in all of this," a tearful Cash told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "So I'm just preparing for whatever's going to come next."
She said she expected Thompson to confess to federal investigators.
"He's going to tell them what he told me," Cash said.
Thompson is charged with seven other people in the alleged conspiracy to kidnap Janssen. Only Jakym Camel Tibbs remains on the run, authorities said late Thursday afternoon.
A $25,000 reward offered Wednesday by the FBI for Thompson and Tibbs still is available for anyone with information leading to Tibbs' arrest.
Authorities said Tibbs and Thompson drove from Atlanta to Wake Forest, N.C., with two women to grab Janssen and bring him back to Atlanta.
They're accused of stuffing Janssen into the trunk of a rented Nissan Versa after attacking him with a Taser and assaulting him, according to a federal criminal complaint obtained by The AJC.
Prosecutors said that Kelvin Melton, an inmate serving a life prison sentence in North Carolina for orchestrating a 2011 murder plot, planned Janssen's kidnapping and gave instructions from his prison cell using a contraband cellular phone.
The scheme, prosecutors said, was part of a plot to get back at Janssen's daughter Colleen Janssen, a Wake County, N.C., assistant district attorney who was the prosecutor in the trial that led to Melton's conviction for the murder plot.
Melton continues to be held at the Polk Correctional Institution in Butner, N.C., awaiting action from federal authorities on the new charges.
Investigators were able to identify Tibbs and Thompson after finding a McDonald's restaurant receipt in Janssen's home that came from a stop they made on the way to kidnap him. Investigators linked the receipt to video images of the two from the restaurant, according to court records.
Five other people have been arrested and charged in connection with the kidnapping plot and are being held in federal custody.
Tiana Maynard and Jenna Paulin Martin have been shipped back to the custody of federal officials in North Carolina.
Michael Montreal Gooden, Jevante Price and Clifton James Roberts will face a federal judge next week, along with Thompson, to determine if there is sufficient evidence to pursue a court trial.
It was unclear early Thursday evening where officials arrested Thompson.
The husky Thompson on Thursday sat without an expression on his rounded face.
Cash, his mother, said her son had recently graduated from Alonzo A. Crim High School's open campus night school program and had no criminal record.
"I don't know why he's involved in this," she said. "I'm just glad he's alive."
Handcuffed and shackled at the ankles, and dressed in a gray Kilauea, Hawaii, T-shirt and blue sweatpants with random bleach splotches, Thompson shouted, "I love you," to his mother as he shuffled behind U.S. Marshals out of sight.
He will appear before U.S. District Court Judge Gerrilyn G. Brill at 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday.
Federal and local law enforcement officials continue to search for Tibbs.
Anyone with information on his whereabouts is asked to call the FBI at 1-800-225-5324.
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