KALAMAZOO, MI (WKZO AM/FM) – A man police say helped to kidnap a Kalamazoo woman and her two children has pled guilty to attempted kidnapping and fleeing an officer.
29-year-old DeShawn Gladney originally was charged with multiple felonies, including three counts of unlawful imprisonment. Most of the charges were dropped as part of the plea deal.
August 21, 2024, Doriesha Watts and her five-year-old and two-year-old children were kidnapped by Gladney and Watts’ husband, Jordan.
Court documents show Watts had a personal protection order against her husband, but he forced her into the passenger seat of her own car at the Kalamazoo Library parking lot. DeShawn Gladney was driving the vehicle.
After the Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety put out a public plea to help find Watts and her children, they were located safe later that evening. Police used surveillance video from the library in the case.
Gladney is scheduled for sentencing next month.
Jordan Watts brother, Carlos Watts Jr., faces murder charges in the disappearance of his girlfriend, Heather Kelley. The Portage mother of 8 children went missing in December 2022. Her body still hasn’t been found.
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