No plea at hearing for Philadelphia kidnapping suspect Delvin Barnes
PHILADELPHIA (KABC) -- The man accused of abducting a Philadelphia woman and a Virginia teen just weeks apart was in court Wednesday in Philadelphia.
It was a brief court appearance for 37-year-old Delvin Barnes, who was led into the courtroom shackled and wearing a green federal prison jumpsuit.
Appearing before a magisterial judge in federal court, Barnes was arraigned on the kidnapping charges. He did not enter a plea, but he was not required to by law.
Barnes uttered just two words during the five-minute proceeding.
Judge Jacob Hart told him that based on his income, he was entitled to a court-appointed lawyer. Hart asked Barnes if he wanted that or if he would hire a private lawyer. Barnes responded, "Court appointed," and that was it.
Barnes was assigned a court-appointed attorney, and then returned to the Federal Detention Center in Center City. He is scheduled to return to federal court on Friday for a bail hearing.
His court-appointed lawyer, Nina Spizer, had a brief statement after the hearing.
"Today the federal defender was appointed to represent Mr. Barnes. It was continued to Friday for a detention hearing as well as a probable cause hearing," Spizer said.
The federal prosecutor had no comment after the hearing other than to say it is an ongoing investigation.
Barnes arrived in Philadelphia Tuesday in a white van followed by an escort vehicle. He was picked up Tuesday morning by FBI agents from a prison outside Richmond, Virginia. Barnes had been held there since last Thursday.
He was arrested last Wednesday in Maryland, where he had allegedly taken Carlesha Freeland-Gaither after kidnapping her off a street in Germantown.
Federal court documents indicate he has admitted to abducting her. Surveillance cameras captured the chilling moments when Freeland-Gaither was attacked and then forced into a car.
Investigators got their first indication of where she was when her debit card was allegedly used by Barnes at a bank in Aberdeen, Maryland. Investigators were able to locate the car using a tracking device that had been installed by the dealer who sold the car to Barnes.
Federal agents closed in on him at a shopping center in Jessup, Maryland, where they arrested Barnes and rescued Freeland-Gaither.
Police say Barnes kidnapped a 16-year-old girl near Richmond in October. She was able to escape as he was allegedly digging her grave.
Authorities in Virginia have agreed to prosecute that case after Barnes faces the federal kidnapping charges in Philadelphia.
