Former NC death row inmate due back in court

CHARLOTTE — A former death row inmate charged with kidnapping a North Carolina man, his daughter and two grandchildren is scheduled to appear in federal court.

Jerry Douglas Case is due to appear in a Charlotte courtroom Monday morning for a detention hearing. Authorities say the 52-year-old threatened to kill the family and forced them to drive around North and South Carolina.

Prosecutors say the man, his adult daughter, his 7-year-old granddaughter and 9-month-old grandson escaped by driving away when Case got out of the vehicle at a gas station near Gaffney, S.C.

Case was sentenced to death row in 1986 in the killing of a Tennessee taxi driver. He got a life sentence on a retrial and was released on parole in 2007.

Case has been arrested four times since his release.

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