A northeast Arkansas man has been sentenced to prison for his part in the kidnapping of a man and a woman who were swimming in a pond near Goobertown last year.
Jon Wayne Price, 42, of Brookland pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm and was sentenced on Monday to five years in the Arkansas Department of Correction, according to court documents. He originally faced additional charges of aggravated assault and false imprisonment, but those counts were dropped as part of a plea deal.
Another man, Jeffery Allen Johnston, 49, of Brookland, is scheduled for a jury trial, according to court records.
On July 6, a 43-year-old Trumann man told deputies with the Craighead County sheriff's office that he'd been beaten with a gun, threatened with death and held against his will, and that his partner was still being kept by the kidnappers.
The man told deputies the couple had been skinny-dipping in a pond behind a residence in the 600 Block of County Road 792. He said the assailants approached the couple in a truck before pointing guns at them and accusing them of stealing.
Two men ordered the couple out of the pond and forced them separately to return with them to a shop building on County Road 960, according to a probable-cause affidavit. Deputies said the man, who was able to escape, had visible injuries.
Deputies said they went to the location and found several people, including Price, Johnston and the second victim, identified as a 36-year-old Brookland woman. Both suspects initially tried to run from deputies before being ordered to stop at gunpoint, according to the affidavit.
State Desk on 02/15/2019