Delvin Barnes said he needed money to travel back to Virginia when he kidnapped a Philadelphia woman off the street and held her hostage for nearly three days.
Barnes pleaded guilty in a federal courtroom in Philadelphia Thursday morning to abducting Carlesha Freeland-Gaither last fall. The judge asked Barnes, who had his hands cuffed behind his back, if he understood that the guilty plea meant he would be admitting to the crime. Barnes answered in mostly "yes" and "no" answers outside of explaining his motive.
"It was an act of robbery in the beginning, and it turned into other things," Barnes told the court.
Barnes, who had earlier confessed, confirmed he abducted the 22-year-old nursing aide in hopes of getting money from her to travel south to Virginia to see his daughter there before facing charges for an earlier attack.
The 38-year-old is expected to be sentenced to 35 years in prison followed by five years of supervised release when he is sentenced early next year.
The violent November 2, 2014 attack, which was captured on surveillance video, shows Barnes grabbing Freeland-Gaither moments after she stepped off a bus and throwing her in a car parked along W Coulter Street in the city's Germantown neighborhood. Once in the car, the young woman struck Barnes with a hammer, which led him to threaten to kill her if she didn't stop, said prosecutors.
Investigators tracked the suspect and captured him in Maryland three days later. He told detectives that he selected his abduction victim at random.
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Barnes, who authorities have described as a "vicious predator," was charged federally a day after his arrest.
As part of the plea deal, he also admitted to raping and trying to kill a Virginia teen in early October 2014. Barnes allegedly hit her with a shovel and took her to a mobile home where he doused her in bleach and gasoline before she escaped.
Attorneys didn't speak after Thursday's hearing.
