Special2bme
May 2nd, 2009, 01:41 PM
VAN BUREN - A Mulberry man arrested on kidnapping and aggravated robbery charges had served 20 years in a Georgia prison for sex crimes against minors.
David Sweet, 50, went before a Crawford County court judge Friday for an initial appearance after a daylong manhunt in Mulberry ended Thursday evening with his arrest. He was being sought in connection with the attempted abduction of a woman at a Mulberry medical clinic Wednesday.
Circuit Judge Gary Cottrell ordered Sweet held in lieu of $250,000 bond and appointed the public defender's office to represent him.
No formal charges were filed against him Friday.
Based on his criminal background, Sweet was listed as a Level 2 sex offender, meaning there is a moderate risk he would be a repeat offender.
The Web site for the Georgia Department of Corrections showed that Sweet was convicted in Atlanta in 1987 of aggravated child molestation, child molestation and enticing a child for indecent purposes, all felonies.
He was sentenced to 20 years in prison and served nearly all of that sentence. Records indicate he began serving his sentence Sept. 10, 1987, and was released from Rogers State Prison in Reidsville, Ga., on May 7, 2007.
Police said he has been living in Mulberry for about six months and was living across Main Street from Mulberry Family Clinic.
About 5 p.m. Wednesday, according to police, he confronted a female employee of the clinic as she was locking up for the day, brandished a knife and pushed her back inside where he bound her feet and hands with tape and gagged her with a strip of tape.
After demanding money and cutting off the top part of the woman's clothing, he took her keys and went to start her car. When he returned inside, she was gone.
Police said the woman was able to free her feet from the tape and run across Main Street to the Medi Quik Pharmacy, where employees took her in and called 911.
Sweet fled and evaded capture Wednesday, prompting a large-scale manhunt involving officers from various agencies in the area. They searched for him all night Wednesday and into Thursday. Schools were in lockdown, homes of his fiancee's family were monitored and Union Pacific Railroad officials were asked not to run their trains slowly through town for fear Sweet would jump one to escape.
Sweet was arrested about 6 p.m. Thursday when a resident reported spotting someone fitting Sweet's description.
http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/258589/
David Sweet, 50, went before a Crawford County court judge Friday for an initial appearance after a daylong manhunt in Mulberry ended Thursday evening with his arrest. He was being sought in connection with the attempted abduction of a woman at a Mulberry medical clinic Wednesday.
Circuit Judge Gary Cottrell ordered Sweet held in lieu of $250,000 bond and appointed the public defender's office to represent him.
No formal charges were filed against him Friday.
Based on his criminal background, Sweet was listed as a Level 2 sex offender, meaning there is a moderate risk he would be a repeat offender.
The Web site for the Georgia Department of Corrections showed that Sweet was convicted in Atlanta in 1987 of aggravated child molestation, child molestation and enticing a child for indecent purposes, all felonies.
He was sentenced to 20 years in prison and served nearly all of that sentence. Records indicate he began serving his sentence Sept. 10, 1987, and was released from Rogers State Prison in Reidsville, Ga., on May 7, 2007.
Police said he has been living in Mulberry for about six months and was living across Main Street from Mulberry Family Clinic.
About 5 p.m. Wednesday, according to police, he confronted a female employee of the clinic as she was locking up for the day, brandished a knife and pushed her back inside where he bound her feet and hands with tape and gagged her with a strip of tape.
After demanding money and cutting off the top part of the woman's clothing, he took her keys and went to start her car. When he returned inside, she was gone.
Police said the woman was able to free her feet from the tape and run across Main Street to the Medi Quik Pharmacy, where employees took her in and called 911.
Sweet fled and evaded capture Wednesday, prompting a large-scale manhunt involving officers from various agencies in the area. They searched for him all night Wednesday and into Thursday. Schools were in lockdown, homes of his fiancee's family were monitored and Union Pacific Railroad officials were asked not to run their trains slowly through town for fear Sweet would jump one to escape.
Sweet was arrested about 6 p.m. Thursday when a resident reported spotting someone fitting Sweet's description.
http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/258589/