Three plead guilty to abduction in Highland County Common Pleas Court

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Three people who were co-defendants in a Greenfield kidnapping case pled guilty Wednesday to abduction charges in Highland County Common Pleas Court.

And in a separate case, a Wilmington man who earlier pled guilty to child pornography charges avoided prison and was given community control sanctions, which the judge said was “way out of my comfort zone.”

Virgil Bryant, 53, Tina Bryant, 52, and Sabrina Banks, 23, all of Hillsboro, each pled guilty to one count of third-degree felony abduction in connection with the kidnapping of Tina Bryant’s daughter in October, according to court records.

One count of abduction for each of the three was dropped as part of a plea agreement.

Each faces up to three years in prison, Judge Rocky Coss said.

According to an affidavit filed in the case, law enforcement interviews with the victim and two women who were with her at the time of the abduction alleged that a group of masked individuals pulled into the old Pamida parking lot on Jefferson Street in Greenfield, where the three women were waiting for the victim to meet Tina Bryant.

The affidavit states the masked people used tasers and pepper spray as they took the victim and drove away with her.

Both women identified Virgil and Tina Bryant as the kidnappers, according to the affidavit.

The victim, who was later found at a Dunn Road property, said Virgil Bryant held a gun to her head and Tina Bryant sprayed her with pepper spray during the kidnapping before taking her to the Dunn Road property owned by her uncle.

Banks and Nathan Day, 26, Hillsboro, were also involved in the kidnapping, according to allegations in court records. All four were later arrested.

Authorities have been unclear about the defendants’ motives.

The case against Day, who is charged with two counts of abduction, is still pending. The next hearing will be held Friday. He is represented by lawyer Richard Federle.

Coss said prison sentences for the Bryants and Banks are not mandatory, but assumed appropriate due to the nature of the charges. The judge ordered pre-sentence investigations in each case. Sentencing hearings will be held in January.

Coss reduced bond for the Bryants from $100,000 to $10,000, following a request from the Bryants’ lawyer, Jack Bradley. If they are able to make bond, the judge ordered they be placed under house arrest until the case is resolved, and only allowed to leave for church services and business affairs with the permission of the probation department.

Also Wednesday, Seth Parshall, 30, Wilmington was sentenced to five years of community control sanctions after he pled guilty recently to three counts of illegal use of a minor in nudity-oriented material or performance, a fifth-degree felony.

Judge Rocky Coss delayed Parshall’s sentencing hearing after the plea, and ordered him to surrender his laptop for investigation to see if Parshall has viewed similar content since 2014, when the initial offense occurred. Highland County Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Molly Bolek said on Wednesday that no such content was found on the laptop.

Parshall said at a previous hearing that he bought the laptop shortly after the Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation confiscated his computer in 2014.

Coss said Parshall scored 1 out of 40 on the Ohio Risk Assessment test, meaning it is unlikely he will become involved in criminal activity in the future.

“That’s extremely low,” Coss said.

Coss said he has always taken a “pretty hard line” on sex offenders, but he said there was no evidence to indicate Parshall would return to that kind of behavior again.

Even so, the judge said he was reluctant to sentence Parshall to community control sanctions.

“I’m way out of my comfort zone,” Coss said. “I’m taking a chance on you.”

Coss said Parshall’s computer is subject to search at any time, and forbid him from using social media and visiting websites that could contain explicit content.

“You will have no expectation of privacy,” he said.

Parshall is a Tier-I registered sex offender.

Reach David Wright at 937-402-2570, or on Twitter @DavidWrighter.

Sabrina Banks, right, sits in court with defense attorney J.D. Wagoner.
http://www.timesgazette.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/33/2017/12/web1_fsabrinabanks.jpgSabrina Banks, right, sits in court with defense attorney J.D. Wagoner. David Wright | The Times-Gazette

Seated in the foreground, from left, defense attorney Jack Bradley sits in court with Tina Bryant and Virgil Bryant.
http://www.timesgazette.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/33/2017/12/web1_fbryants.jpgSeated in the foreground, from left, defense attorney Jack Bradley sits in court with Tina Bryant and Virgil Bryant. David Wright | The Times-Gazette
Judge: ‘I’m taking a chance’ in Parshall sentence

By David Wright

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