An Eatonton man was sentenced to 25 years in prison for kidnapping his son. Ocmulgee Judicial Circuit Superior Court Judge Terry N.
Massey handed down the sentence Wednesday, Sept. 11, in Baldwin County Superior Court.
Hakeem Metez Evans, 35, of Loblolly Drive, was arrested at his home in early May 2023 on charges of kidnapping, cruelty to children, and aggravated assault, according to Baldwin County Superior Court records.
In a trial held Sept. 3-4, jurors found Evans guilty of the felony kidnapping charge and lessened the assault charge to misdemeanor battery. The jurors returned the guilty verdicts after an hour and a half of deliberating, according to Assistant District Attorney Nancy Scott Moskaly.
Evans and his child’s mother first met in Arizona but never had a romantic relationship. Moskaly said that things did not work between them when she got pregnant, and Evans moved back to Georgia. A few years later, the mother also moved to Georgia, thinking it would be good for her son to have his father in his life.
“I think this case was about a mother trying to do what she thought was best for her son, but it wasn’t,” Moskaly said.
Evans’ then-six-year-old son was living with the child’s mother in Milledgeville when Evans picked the boy up for a weekend visit. Evans took the child to his home, and because it was a school night, the boy’s mother expected him to return before his bedtime of 8 p.m. on Sunday, May 7, 2023, Moskaly said.
When they didn’t return, the mother repeatedly tried to reach Evans by cell phone, but her efforts were unsuccessful. When they finally returned to the mother’s house after 9 p.m., an argument broke out between Evans and his son’s mother. Evans reportedly grabbed the mother’s neck and choked her, then took the boy back to his home in Eatonton, according to Moskaly.
The mother phoned 911 and reported that her son had been kidnapped by his father. Baldwin County Sheriff’s Office deputies tracked the father’s cell phone, which led them to his single-wide mobile home in Eatonton.
There, deputies found Evans sitting in a chair in the yard, drinking a can of beer; his son was asleep in the backseat of his car. The deputies arrested Evans and returned the boy, unharmed, to his mother.
According to court records, Evans, who was unemployed, was represented throughout his court proceedings and trial by Chief Public Defender John Hugh Bradley.