The case of a man accused of kidnapping a woman from a vehicle in Cabell County at a busy intersection will be presented to a grand jury.
Magistrate Mike McCarthy found probable cause Tuesday to send the case against Danny Joe White Jr., 25, to a grand jury. White is charged with kidnapping, domestic battery and domestic assault following an incident Nov. 21 near the Merritt Creek Farm shopping center in Barboursville, according to court records.
A criminal complaint said the woman’s father had picked her up because he was concerned about his daughter’s safety and that White, who was her boyfriend, had followed them in a vehicle to the intersection.
The father said when he stopped at a red light, White forced his daughter from the vehicle, and she didn’t want to go with him and was screaming. Witnesses reported the woman being removed from the vehicle and forced into a pickup truck.
At Tuesday’s hearing, West Virginia Trooper First Class Steven Borsman said the woman provided a statement that “she did not want to go with the suspect, and she had been trying to leave with her father. The suspect had pursued them and then at some point had taken them out of the car."
The trooper also described a video he saw of the incident that was taken by a witness.
"What appeared to be a female was removed forcibly from that vehicle and while that female was kicking and screaming - appeared to be screaming - she was forced into the driver's seat of the pickup truck that was at the same intersection," Borsman said.
According to the complaint, a trooper went to the suspect’s home in Glenwood in Mason County after the incident and found him inside the residence. The woman was found in the suspect’s vehicle in the driveway.
The woman told the trooper that White had forced her from the vehicle that was being driven by her father and had slapped her in the face while he drove her to Mason County. The trooper said the woman had multiple bruises and abrasions on her face.