COLUMBIA, SC (AP) - The suspect in the abduction of a Columbia teen is
asking to be released on bond, but federal prosecutors argue in court documents
filed this week that the man's extensive criminal past - including a one-day
escape from military authorities - should keep him behind bars.
During a search of Freddie Grant's house for Gabbiee Swainson, a 15-year-old
Richland County girl missing since August, authorities found bullets and
shotgun shells - ammunition Grant is not allowed to have as a convicted felon.
In court documents, attorney John Delgado says Grant, 52, would consent to
house arrest and any restrictions on phone or other means of digital
communication if he's granted bond on a federal ammunition charge. But
prosecutors say Grant should stay in jail because of a decades-long criminal
history that includes convictions for drug, assault and criminal domestic
violence dating to 1980.
That year, Grant was arrested while serving with the U.S. Army in Korea and
charged with assault for cutting a man's face with a razor blade, according to
prosecutors. While he was being arrested, Grant kicked an officer in the chest.
A few months later, while being transported by Army officials, Grant took an
M-16 from one of the officers and kidnapped them at gunpoint, prosecutors
wrote.
Captured the next day, Grant was also charged with kidnapping. During a
court-martial, Grant was convicted of charges including kidnapping and assault
and sentenced to nearly nine years of hard labor at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas.
In 1991, Grant was arrested on a train in Florida with a loaded gun and
cocaine. The next year, he was convicted of drug possession, resisting arrest
and carrying a concealed weapon in that state, as well as cocaine possession in
South Carolina.
In South Carolina, Grant has prior convictions for shoplifting in 1995,
driving under suspension in 2006 and criminal domestic violence in 2011,
prosecutors wrote.
In court this week, a judge agreed to delay his federal trial until January
to give his new attorney more time to review evidence. But Delgado also said
that his client might plead guilty to the federal charge if he loses an
argument to suppress certain evidence.
Local authorities also lodged a kidnapping charge against Grant after
Gabbiee's blood was found on duct tape near his home. Authorities have said he
had dated Gabbiee's mother and used a key he'd claimed to have lost to enter
the family's home and take the girl.
Gabbiee was last seen by her mother at around 4 a.m. on Aug. 18. Elvia
Swainson has said she saw her daughter before she left for work in the
northeast Columbia suburbs. When the mother returned home several hours later,
Gabbiee's alarm clock was ringing, and her only child was gone.
Authorities have said the teen's clothes and purse were at the home.
If convicted on the ammunition charge, Grant could face a possible life
sentence if a judge determines that his prior convictions make Grant an armed
career criminal, according to federal prosecutors.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.
Freddie Grant (Source: Richland County Sheriff's Department)
Gabrielle Swainson
