A fifth suspect wanted in the kidnapping and assault that has so far resulted in the arrest of four other individuals is in the Franklin County Detention Center as an Arkansas Department of Corrections hold and has been in custody since three days after the July 17 crime.
According to a corrections officer with the Franklin County jail, Sherman Teague, 27, was taken into custody on July 20 on charges unrelated to the kidnapping. He remains in custody on a no bond hold and, according to the Franklin County officer, is “on his way down to the ADC.”
According to the Arkansas Department of Corrections website, Teague is being placed back into the ADC system because of a probation revocation based upon an earlier conviction for theft of property. out of Craighead County.
Teague was found guilty in March of 2008 on an original theft of property charge and sentenced to 60 months of pro-probation at that time. In 2013 he faced a parole revocation on the original charges when he negotiated a plea for being a felon in possession of a firearm and was sentenced to jail time and ordered to make restitution in the theft of property case.
Apparently, Teague had failed to meet the conditions of his parole and was sentenced to 36 months on a revocation on February 5, 2016.
Records also show he has a detainer out of LeFlore County that was issued on August 23, 2016.
There is no mention of a detainer or kidnapping charges pending out of Sebastian County on the ADC website, which shows he was released from the Ouachita River Correction Unit on April 18, 2016.
Although the Fort Smith kidnapping occurred on July 17, the victim said he didn’t report it initially because he was told by the perpetrators that he would be killed if he went to police.
Law enforcement was contacted by a third party and questioned the victim, who also sid he had been scared to come forward because he had an active warrant.
The man told police that he went out with a woman he had met on Facebook and she picked him up near a resident on Kinkead Avenue
After they had eaten the female said she was thirsty and the couple stopped at a convenience store near the intersection of Grand Avenue and I-49.
When he stopped, a man appeared and put a gun to his head as he got out of thee vehicle. He was able to get away momentarily and ran towards an area behind Gorman Towers. Two carloads of suspects followed and the victim was bound, placed into one of the vehiciles and taken to Charleston where the assault occurred.
When they got to the gas station, a man allegedly opened the victim’s car door and placed a gun to his side. He said he was able to shove the gun away and run toward an area behind Gorman Towers. The report states two cars followed him and several people got out when the man threatened him with a gun.
The victim was taken to a ball field in Charleston where he was assaulted.
Jessika Hild, Robert Cooksey, Shawna Moore and Charles Colton Cotton all remain behind bars of $50,000 bond in the case.