A Kentucky man accused of raping a 16-year-old girl and hiding her behind a trap door claims he tried to help the teenager after she was kicked out of her home in North Carolina.
Zackary Jones, 34 – who was arrested after the alleged victim was found under a carpeted trap door in his bedroom in Lincoln County – insisted he had no ill will and believed the teenager was an adult.
“His grandmother kicked him out. He didn’t seem that old [16],” Jones told Fox 19 in a jailhouse interview about the girl, who had been missing for weeks. “He has all kinds of piercings.”
Jones said he went to North Carolina to help the girl, who he allegedly met online, and was told she was 18.
“He hid on his own accord. He was actually on the bed when the police officers first got in there,” he told Fox 19.
Zackary Jones, 34, the Kentucky man accused of kidnapping and raping a missing North Carolina girl, claims he tried to help her after she was kicked out of her home. WKYT
But the girl’s family denied her claims, saying she had met the suspect after running away from her grandmother.
“He started taking her privileges away from her, her phone and her stuff,” the teenager’s grandfather, Eugene Baughman, told the outlet. “That’s when he got angry and left. He won’t come home.”
The girl was reported missing in early December.
The 16-year-old girl was found behind a trap door at Jones’ home. WKYT
“I thought he was dead,” he said.
“I don’t think he saved anyone. I think he was trying to find someone else to victimize,” Baughman added of the suspect, who police said admitted to drugging the girl and tried to destroy drug paraphernalia in front of police.
Police initially visited Jones’ home after his mother reported a fight between her adult son and his “girlfriend,” WTVQ reported.
Jones claimed the girl was not there, but officers quickly arrested her after seeing drug paraphernalia in the open.
Eugene Baughman, the girl’s grandfather, said she ran away from home. WKYT
They later found the girl, who looked “very tall,” and realized she was the missing North Carolina teenager.
She told investigators that Jones sexually assaulted her and that the two used crack cocaine together, according to an arrest citation obtained by WCNC.
The victim said Jones initially told her she was only 19 and he allegedly forced her to tell her family she was 18.
The girl also said they had been pulled over by police for a traffic violation, and Jones said he would shoot the officer if they were asked to get out of the car.
Jones allegedly admitted to police that he had sex with the teenager after picking her up from her home, according to the arrest report.
Jones faces charges of rape, sodomy, assault, strangulation, unlawful imprisonment, terroristic threats, unlawful transactions with minors and various drug-related charges.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
