Charges dropped against trucker accused of beating captive

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Posted 7:40AM on Saturday, May 11, 2002

DUBLIN - Most charges were dropped Friday against a truck driver who was accused of holding his girlfriend captive for months and beating her while they traveled across the East Coast in his tractor-trailer. Magistrate Judge Tommy Bobbitt found no probable cause existed for charges of kidnapping with bodily injury and aggravated assault against Shannon E. Jones, 26. Ronda ``Katina'' Pate accused Jones on national television two weeks ago of refusing to allow her to leave him. She said she left a string of messages scrawled on restroom walls, one of which was found by a janitor in Tennessee, who notified authorities. Laurens County arrested Jones at a rest area along Interstate 16 between Macon and Savannah on April 20. After testimony indicated Pate might have caused her own injuries, Bobbitt found cause only for simple assault, a misdemeanor, and set bond at $2,500. Immediately after the hearing, Jones' mother bailed him out of jail. He had been held on $50,000 bond. Assistant District Attorney David Gafnea said he may drop the simple assault charge. The kidnapping case began to unravel soon after Jones' arrest as witnesses started coming forward saying they saw Pate without Jones just days prior to his arrest. Jones told Bobbitt that Pate could have left him at any time, and he even would have given her money. The assault charge seemed solid because Pate's face was bruised. However, the lead investigator, sheriff's Sgt. Gerald Frazier, said a worker at the battered women's shelter where Pate is staying told him she had witnessed Pate beating herself with a hair dryer. He also said Pate's family members told him she was prone to beating herself. Gafnea said the most prosecutable charge in the case is probably the one against Pate, Gafnea said. She was charged with giving false statements after deputies learned she gave a false name, Katina Shaddix, and age, 24. She is actually 37. ``If the people didn't catch her beating herself with a hair dryer, I might still be in jail,'' Jones told The Macon Telegraph. He said he plans to try to get his truck-driving job back. His truck still is in Laurens County, and if his boss agrees, he planned to drive it back to his home in Delhi, N.Y.