A Starkville man was found guilty Thursday by an Oktibbeha County Circuit Court jury for two counts of attempted kidnapping, attempt to escape from jail and aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer.
John B. Arnold Jr., 48, attempted to check out a 6-year-old child from Sudduth Elementary School in February 2018 without the parents’ permission. He attempted again days later, and after his second arrest, assaulted an officer in a failed attempt to break out of Oktibbeha County Jail.
After the three-day trial, the jury deliberated for nearly two hours, ending around 5:45 p.m. Thursday, before reaching a verdict. Judge James Kitchens, who is presiding over the case, asked all parties to return Friday morning for sentencing.
District Attorney Scott Colom and Assistant District Attorney Trina Brooks led the prosecution. Several witnesses involved in the incident testified throughout the trial.
“Those witnesses had no stake in this,” Brooks said. “They weren’t joking about this. They came and told the truth, and the truth is that the defendant is guilty on all four counts.”
Arnold called a former employee of his on Feb. 16, 2018, saying he wanted to check out a child of a former family friend from school. He arrived at Starkville Academy, where the child did not even attend school, asking for the child. The school secretary contacted the mother about the occurrence, and she then contacted Sudduth Elementary School, where the child actually attended school, to warn the school about Arnold.
Arnold then went to Sudduth asking for the child, but school officials intervened and asked him to leave. Later that night, he went to the child’s grandfather’s house asking for the child again where Arnold was arrested and told not to have any further contact with the family but later bonded out.
He then contacted the family and was arrested again. He bonded out once more but this time was required to wear a tracking ankle bracelet.
A week later, Arnold went to Henderson Ward Elementary School asking to see the child, and when the assistant principal would not allow that, he left the school and cut off his ankle bracelet. After a two-hour manhunt, officers found him near Sudduth and put him back in jail.
On Feb. 27, 2018, while he was in jail, Arnold attacked an officer, putting him in a chokehold and demanded to be let out of prison. After the officer was able to apprehend him and he was put in an isolation cell, Arnold told officers, “I just want to see that kid.”
“While the defendant was in the Oktibbeha County Jail, while he was an inmate, while they were on the yard, he tried to assault the county jail officer,” Brooks said. “He grabbed him by the neck, put him in a chokehold and told him to open the gate. They wrestled. The officer (tasered) him, and (Arnold) went down. During that time, the officer … had injuries from the assault.”
Closing arguments
Defense Attorney Amanda Meadows of Columbus claimed the state did not provide adequate evidence to prove that Arnold had a design or intent for the attempted kidnappings and that he just wanted to visit with the child.
Meadows also indicated that no witnesses during their testimonies said they called the police department or 911 after the first instance at SA, claiming no one acted like anything was wrong.
“Now it’s up to (the jury)” Meadows said in her closing statement. “… We feel that you can’t even get through that first hump (to find him guilty) because they haven’t given you the tools to do that because they don’t exist. You haven’t heard one person come in here that has said, ‘It was a design to kidnap him, to take him away from the custody of his parents.’”
Colom rebutted Meadows’ claims, saying Arnold calling his former employee about his intentions to pick up the child from school and attempting to see the child even after he was ordered not to contact the family anymore shows clear design and intent of kidnapping.
“(Meadows) did anything she could find to criticize any witness on the stand, even if it didn’t have to do with the defense,” Colom said. “If she had a way to criticize them, she criticized them.”
Meadows also called a psychiatrist, Dr. John Montgomery from Pascagoula, to the stand during the trial to say that Arnold’s actions did not prove he had a design and intent, but Montgomery testified that Arnold was not mentally insane, to which Colom told the jury could not justify Arnold being found not guilty.
Starkville Police Department Sgt. John Michael Lay said the reason Arnold was ultimately unsuccessful in kidnapping the child was because all schools were prepared to calmly handle critical situations such as this, and the family is appreciative to all who helped keep the child safe.
“We just want to thank all the agencies involved — the schools, the DA’s office, the Starkville Police Department,” Lay said. “On behalf of the family and the Starkville Police Department, we are just thankful that the system worked in preventing a kidnapping from happening.”
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