Jilted groom says he still wants to marry his runaway bride

<p>The jilted groom whose bride-to-be ran away four days before their wedding still wants to marry Jennifer Wilbanks, saying, "Haven't we all made mistakes?"</p><p>"Just because we haven't walked down the aisle, just because we haven't stood in front of 500 people and said our I Do's, my commitment before God to her was the day I bought that ring and put it on her finger, and I'm not backing down from that," John Mason said Monday in an interview with Fox News' Hannity & Colmes show.</p><p>It was Mason's first public statement since he learned on the morning of his scheduled wedding day that his fiancee had gotten cold feet.</p><p>As her family and friends feared the worst, police say Wilbanks cut her hair and took a Greyhound bus to Las Vegas to back out of a lavish, 600-guest wedding planned for Saturday. She then went on to Albuquerque, N.M., where she eventually called Mason and police from a pay phone at a 7-11, saying she had been kidnapped. She later said it simply a case of cold feet.</p><p>Mason said he has given the 32-year-old Wilbanks her ring back _ she had left it at the house _ and said they still planned to marry.</p><p>The minister who was to marry the couple, the Rev. Alan Jones, of Peachtree Corners Baptist Church, told reporters that the groom wasn't angry, citing Jesus as a model for forgiving sin.</p><p>"Everybody has a right to make a mistake," Jones said.</p><p>But if Mason and Wilbanks' family are ready to forgive the jittery bride, authorities are still peeved.</p><p>The mayor said Monday she is looking into the possibility of suing Wilbanks for the estimated $100,000 cost of searching for her. That option would have to be approved by the city council. The groom's father, Claude Mason, is a former mayor of Duluth and a local judge.</p><p>"We feel a tad betrayed and some are very hurt about it," Mayor Shirley Lasseter said.</p><p>She added that they want to hear from Wilbanks' family, to see if perhaps there was a good reason for the woman's disappearance. "I would love to hear from the family and know there might have been a problem and know we should work with this lady on some recourse other than legally."</p><p>A local prosecutor said Monday he will conduct a thorough investigation, which could take weeks, before deciding whether to charge Wilbanks for falsely claiming she had been kidnapped. District Attorney Danny Porter said he has not yet interviewed Wilbanks.</p><p>He said Wilbanks could face a misdemeanor charge of false report of a crime or a felony charge of false statements. The misdemeanor carries a penalty of up to a year in jail; five years in prison is the maximum sentence for the felony.</p><p>"I've got to know all the facts before I know the appropriate charges," Porter said. "Now I've got to gather all the information from Duluth and Albuquerque and the FBI."</p><p>Porter said earlier Monday that authorities have evidence that Wilbanks' disappearance "was not just a spur-of-the-moment thing." He noted she had cut her hair and said there was evidence she bought the bus ticket ahead of time and secretly set some cash aside.</p><p>Wilbanks boarded a plane from New Mexico back to Georgia wearing a new FBI hat, blazer, polo shirt and pants and carrying a new tote bag and teddy bear, a gift from the aviation police chief. She flew first-class _ thanks to tickets bought by her parents _ and said she planned to name the bear "Al," for Albuquerque.</p><p>"Law enforcement is really making a major move to deal with people in crisis," Albuquerque Police Chief Ray Schulz said Sunday. "Miss Wilbanks was definitely a person in crisis."</p>

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