The trial of a man wanted for abducting and molesting a girl in Jackson County more than 18 years ago has been set for 8:30 a.m. Aug. 22 in Jackson Circuit Court.
Charley Hollin, 61, of Salem, Oregon, was arrested and charged in January in connection with the 1999 incident. The arrest occurred at the place he had worked for the past 15 years.
Hollin had been in federal custody until he was booked into the Jackson County Jail in Brownstown on Wednesday on three Class A felony charges of child molesting and two Class B felony charges of criminal confinement. A Class A felony is punishable by 20 to 50 years in prison if convicted.
His initial hearing was conducted Thursday afternoon by Jackson Circuit Judge Richard W. Poynter, who also set the pre-trial conference for 11:30 a.m. June 8.
The charges stem from an incident in January 1999 involving the abduction of a 10-year-old girl at knifepoint from outside Girls Inc. on West Second Street in Seymour. The girl was taken to a secluded area, molested and released naked on a country road near Cortland. Her abductor threw her clothing out of the vehicle before she was found and rescued by a passing motorist.
Investigators said Hollin was identified as a suspect from evidence collected at the scene, including a coat and a day planner that belonged to him and DNA evidence in the car. The car also had been recovered as evidence.
He initially was charged in 2000 by the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office but then disappeared before police could arrest him.
At the time of his arrest in January, U.S. District Attorney Josh Minkler said Hollin had first fled to Minnesota and later to Oregon.
Minkler said Hollin had been arrested living under the name of Andrew David Hall, an 8-year-old boy who died in a car accident in Kentucky in 1975.
Hollin faces a federal charge of identity theft because he used the boy’s identity to obtain a driver’s license and Social Security card, police said.
The FBI identified Hollin using facial recognition technology comparing an older photo of him to Hollin’s passport renewal application as Hall, Minkler said.
Hollin was held in federal custody on the identity theft charge until federal law enforcement could make a decision about whether to charge him or defer him to stand trial for the charges on the state charges, Jackson County Prosectuor AmyMarie Travis said.
“He will stand trial here first for the local charges,” Travis said.
Travis, who has been working on the case since 2007, said the next step in the process after Hollin’s initial hearing involves discovery, where the state and attorney for the defendant gather and exchange information.
Because of the time since the alleged crime occurred, Travis said there always is some difficulty with cases such as this one.
“It can be difficult to find witnesses, but we have found them,” she said.
Travis said the next step would be up to the judge, who will set pretrial hearing and conferences dates, but a jury trial may not be set for five to six months.