A man charged with attempted kidnapping is free after a Kanawha County Circuit judge inadvertently dismissed his case.
This week, the Kanawha County Prosecutor’s Office received 15 to 20 dismissal orders from Circuit Judge Carrie Webster and one of them was a felony attempted kidnapping charge against Jeremy Carter.
Webster said she was trying to clear her docket of cases she believed were inactive when she accidentally issued the order to dismiss Carter’s case.
Police said Carter was arrested last year after he tried to take a child from a vehicle near the Mound in South Charleston
Webster confirmed that he was released Thursday.
Kanawha County Prosecutor Mark Plants said he reacted immediately when he found out.
“We immediately requested capias for his arrest and provided that capias to law enforcement and they are out looking for him,” said Plants.
Another one of the accidentally dismissed cases involved Gary Wayne Mullins, who was tried, convicted and sentenced to 25 years in prison for kidnapping and bullying an elderly man out of thousands of dollars.
Plants didn’t believe the convictions in Mullins’ case and similar cases would be impacted much by the dismissals. He told MetroNews that it is never good news for the public to hear incidents like this but the fact of the matter is that it happened.
Plants expected to take a look at the other cases that were dismissed in the coming days and determine if any other actions need to be taken.
