Man charged with kidnapping, assault

Talk about it

Jason Lee King, 18, of Redby, was charged Tuesday in Beltrami County District Court with felony kidnapping and two counts of felony second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon.

His next court appearance is scheduled for Oct. 27. He remained in the Beltrami County Jail as of Tuesday afternoon.

According to the criminal complaint, at about 9:36 p.m. Oct. 5 a man reported receiving a phone call from his daughter who reported that she and a female friend had been carjacked and kidnapped earlier in the evening by a man who forced them to drive him to the Redby area. The women were then released by the man when they dropped him off. The female driver made the call while driving home to the Blackduck area.

The women were escorted to the Law Enforcement Center where they gave statements to the Bemidji Police Department and the FBI. The complaint states the women had decided to drive to a convenience store in Bemidji. They were driving in the 700 block of 21st Street Northwest when a man popped up from the back seat and held a knife to the driver’s neck. The complaint states that he ordered the women to take him to the Red Lake Reservation. He also held the knife to the passenger’s neck, the complaint states.

According to the complaint, the alleged kidnapper smoked several of the driver’s cigarettes and tore out the overhead light and headliner of her car.

Officers processed the car owner’s vehicle and found a cigarette butt and a latent fingerprint on the overhead light bulb.

The Bureau of Criminal Apprehension identified the fingerprint as belonging to King, who was wanted on a number of warrants for arrest for, among other things, vehicle theft, according to the complaint.

If convicted on the kidnapping charge, King faces up to 20 years in prison and a $35,000 fine. Each of the assault charges carries a maximum sentence of seven years in prison and a $14,000 fine.

Tags: news, jasonking, jason, king, kidnapping, assalt, bemidji