Man Sentenced To Prison For Abducting Wife, Kids

(WHBC) – The Canton man who abducted his wife and her two young children from the Stark County Sheriff’s Office parking lot in January will do 14 years in a state prison.

26-year-old Michael Williams pleaded guilty earlier to kidnapping and other charges.

He was sentenced on Tuesday.

On January 15th, the sheriff’s office says a distraught woman called 911 saying she was pulling into the sheriff’s office parking lot and needed help.

The phone line then went dead.

Deputies went out to the parking lot to find an abandoned truck stopped sideways in the driveway with the driver’s side door open.

An Alliance officer who was in the visitor’s parking told the deputies he saw a man force a woman to stop her car, and the man forced his way into the vehicle and started driving away.

The officer tried to block the man from driving away, but the man drove into the grass and sped off.

The sheriff’s office says it determined that the driver of the truck was 26-year-old Michael Williams, of Canton, and that he had been involved in a domestic incident with his wife who sought refuge at the sheriff’s office.

The sheriff’s office says Williams pursued his wife and two young children into the parking lot, where he forced his way into their vehicle, abducting the woman and kids.

Authorities were able to locate Williams at a residence in Akron where he was taken into custody without further incident.

The woman and her kids were safely recovered and returned to Stark County.