FAYETTEVILLE — A Fayetteville man charged in connection with kidnapping, possession of drugs and firearms, possession of cocaine with intent to deliver, possession of drug paraphernalia and criminal use of a prohibited weapon after a March 12, 2012, incident in which police said he chained his girlfriend to a bed and refused to let her go, eventually pleaded guilty in October 2012 to the cocaine and drug paraphernalia charges.
The remaining charges were dropped.
Nehemiah Lamar Hicks, now 30, was sentenced to 20 years at the Arkansas Department of Correction with 10 years suspended, leaving 10 years to serve.
Prosecutors said the kidnapping charge was dropped after the woman refused to cooperate and could no longer be found.
According to a preliminary arrest report, police went to Hicks’ home to check the welfare of his girlfriend, Brandy Swilley. The woman’s family reported she had been missing for about a week. A friend told the family Hicks had taken her against her will and planned to “chain her up” so she couldn’t leave him.
Swilley told police she was staying at a friend’s house and agreed to talk to Hicks in his car outside, according police. Hicks displayed a semiautomatic handgun and told Swilley if she tried to leave he would shoot her. Hicks took her to his house, according to the report.
Swilley told police Hicks used a dog chain to keep her from leaving for a week and a half. He chained her to him at night and threatened to harm her and her family if she left, according to the report. Swilley said Hicks hit her on the face with his hand bruising her eye, according to the report.
During a search of Hicks’ home, police found two .45-caliber revolvers, one listed as stolen, along with a dog chain on the floor next to the bed. Police also found 6 grams of marijuana and 5 grams of cocaine, along with a sawed off 12-gauge shotgun hidden in the attic.