Germantown abduction suspect in jail on suicide watch
PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- The man who allegedly kidnapped Carlesha Freeland-Gaither is in custody in Virginia for heinous crimes he allegedly committed there.
Meanwhile, local and federal lawmen gathered at the U.S. Attorney's Office in Philadelphia today to share evidence and start building their case against Delvin Barnes.
Barnes, 37, is now on suicide watch.
He was transferred from Maryland after he was arraigned in court there. He's facing rape and attempted murder charges in Virginia where his alleged victim is a 16-year-old girl.
He's facing a federal kidnapping charge in Philadelphia.
Police continue retracing his steps and multiple jurisdictions are taking another look at similar cases to see if there might be a link.
One man says Barnes should never have been on the street. That man, Anthony, explains his daughter was married to Barnes in 2005. It lasted a week before she got a restraining order.
Barnes broke into her house where he raped and beat her. Her father tried to intervene and Barnes smashed a glass bowl over his head.
Barnes was arrested and spent the next eight years in jail.
Anthony says if he got the max, his two latest alleged victims would have been safe.
"I knew he was going to get in trouble again. I did know that's the kind of person he is. But I had no idea he would do something like that," Anthony said.
Carlesha Freeland-Gaither remained in seclusion with her family Friday. Sources say she spent time today with federal investigators recounting details of her horrifying ordeal.
It started on a corner in Germantown and ended at a shopping center in Jessup, Maryland where federal agents got the jump on Barnes as he got out of his car.
Police got video surveillance of the abduction almost immediately thanks to Dwayne Fletcher. He witnessed the attack and called the police twice.
The police have called him a hero. Fletcher says he just did the right thing.
"One of my family members, somebody else's family members could have been the next victim. You don't know how many victims a guy like this has got - them type of people, to me, are sick," Fletcher said.
Local and Federal prosecutors are still mapping out the legal road ahead for Barnes. They haven't decided yet if he'll be tried first on the state charges in Virginia, or on the federal charges here in Philadelphia.
His former father-in-law has a blunt message for him, saying, "I hope you rot in hell."
