Campbell
The judge will determine whether charges of kidnapping and menacing against a Michigan man will be joined for purposes of trial.
Langston Campbell, 28, was transported from jail Thursday to the courtroom of Wood County Common Pleas Judge Joel Kuhlman.
He was indicted in February for two counts kidnapping, tampering with evidence, disrupting public services, and possessing criminal tools.
On Feb. 14 in Cygnet, a Wood County Sheriff’s Office detective stopped the vehicle Cambell was driving. A woman with severe facial trauma was seated in the back seat.
Dispatched then advised the woman was reported as a missing person.
He was indicted again in July for intimidation of a witness in a criminal case, menacing by stalking, and telecommunications harassment.
From Feb. 14 to July 1, he allegedly used a telephone to threaten to harm or attempt to intimidate the woman he was accused of kidnapping.
In court filings, the state argued that presentation of evidence in both cases would be admissible in both trials if the court ordered the trials to be held separately.
Defense attorney Alex Smith, in his court filings, argued that the criminal rule allows the court to combine charges at trial only if the offenses could have been joined for a single indictment.
There was a gap of almost five months between the two indictments and the evidence in each case is distinct, he wrote.
Smith said Thursday there had been some negotiations for a potential resolution “but we’re not there yet.”
He requested another hearing prior to the trial, which is scheduled to start in December.
A final pretrial was set for Oct. 14.
In February, Wood County received a warrant for Campbell’s arrest from Mecklenburg County, North Caroline, for a felony probation violation with a request to hold Campbell without bond and they would extradite him. Campbell had previously been convicted of felonious restraint in 2023 in that county.
Campbell also had requested $11,810 in currency that was seized at the time of his arrest be released to his grandfather. That request was denied. A search warrant executed on his phone showed messages and photos of drug operations including photos of bulk quantities of marijuana and cash as well as a statement from the IRS indicating he owed $45,688.
