Asheville – A federal jury returned a guilty verdict on April 8 against Stephanie Miranda Neace, 32, of Blairsville, Ga., for the 2023 kidnapping and robbery of an elderly victim, Russ Ferguson, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina, announced in a release.
Neace is still awaiting sentencing. Her co-defendant – Jordan Nathaniel Hedden, 31, of Murphy – pleaded guilty to kidnapping on Nov. 13, 2024, and was sentenced Monday to 121 months in prison, followed by five years of supervised release.
Robert DeWitt, special agent in charge of the FBI in North Carolina, joined Ferguson in making the announcement.
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“This was a frightening crime against an elderly victim who was just trying to help out of the kindness of her heart,” Ferguson said. “People who commit crimes like this affect how we treat one another, and we are committed to bringing them to justice.”
According to court documents, trial evidence and witness testimony, on Nov. 30, 2023, the victim, a 71-year-old woman, was driving from Georgia to North Carolina, when she saw the defendants walking. The victim offered the defendants a ride because it was cold outside. The defendants accepted the ride, and soon after they entered North Carolina, Hedden instructed the victim to drive to his car.
When they arrived at the location, a car was not there. Hedden then ordered the victim to stop the vehicle, and when the victim refused, Hedden forced the victim to stop the car and get in the back seat. Hedden then took over driving.
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According to evidence presented at trial, the victim began to cry, and Hedden yelled at her and told her to shut up. Trial evidence showed that Hedden appeared to be “high and agitated,” and he became paranoid that the victim had a tracking device.
At one point, Hedden stopped the vehicle, and he and Neace searched the car and the victim herself for tracking devices. Then, they took the victim’s phone and disabled it. Hedden also demanded money from the victim, but the victim only had $2.
Fearing for her safety, the victim told the defendants to take her to an ATM and the defendants agreed. During the drive into Tennessee, Hedden made the victim promise that she would not identify them to the police.
During the drive to the ATM, the victim convinced Hedden to let her withdraw money from a gas station ATM instead of a bank. The victim also told Hedden that she would give the defendants the money if they let her stay behind safely at the gas station.
When they arrived at the gas station, the victim took her purse and her car key fob. She told Hedden to turn off the car so the headlights could not be seen from the people inside the gas station, and Hedden complied.
As the victim and Hedden were walking toward the gas station, the victim began to run to the door and scream for help. Hedden ran back to the car, attempted to use it to flee but was unable to start the car without the key fob. Hedden and Neace then fled on foot and escaped into the woods but were apprehended days later.
In making the announcement, Ferguson thanked the FBI for their investigation of the case. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Don Gast and Alexis Solheim of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Asheville prosecuted the case.