ATLANTA — It took a decade, but friends and family of an aspiring actress and model finally got a guilty verdict in a kidnapping case after county prosecutors ran into problems.
The case was further complicated because the victim is now dead.
U.S. Attorney Theodore Hertzberg told Channel 2 Investigative Reporter Mark Winne that the FBI and his office were able to step in when a local prosecution ran into problems.
“It’s just been something that’s been hanging over our heads and our hearts since it occurred,” said Sabre, a close friend of Jokisha Brown.
Since then, there was a dismissal of kidnap and rape charges against Brown’s former boyfriend, Alfredo Capote, in Gwinnett County Court.
Sabre was in federal court with family and friends for the federal trial that produced a guilty verdict against Capote on a kidnapping charge this month.
Hertzberg says Capote was on pre-trial release for a federal fraud charge at the time of the crime in 2016.
“He was alleged to have kidnapped his girlfriend Jokisha Brown, to have sexually assaulted her and to have taken her from Gwinnett County to Cobb County and then finally to Perry, Georgia, where she was able to escape,” he said.
The FBI opened a federal case in 2022 after learning of possible problems in Capote’s Gwinnett County prosecution because of a missed deadline.
“The Gwinnett County Police Department had conducted a thorough investigation,” said FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge Richard Bilson.
Defense attorney Bruce Harvey says he fought for three years to prove Gwinnett County prosecutors failed to meet a crucial speedy-trial deadline, leading to the dismissal of Capote’s kidnapping and rape charges.
He indicated he’ll appeal the federal case for several things, including the use of statements by Brown, who was shot to death months after the kidnapping. He says no one has been charged, and Capote had nothing to do with it.
“The only evidence that would be able to be tested in the crucible of cross-examination and being able to confront one’s accusers comes from someone who was not available to cross-examine,” Harvey said.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Lauren Renaud says the judge rejected defense efforts to keep out Brown’s words.
“The jury did not know that the victim here had been murdered. They only knew that Ms. Brown was deceased,” Renaud said.
Sentencing has been scheduled for July.
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