By JAMES MITCHELL
Sunday Times Newspapers
TAYLOR — A pre-trial meeting Tuesday ended with a May trial date for two men accused of abducting an elderly man from a nursing home.
The May 14 jury trial before Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Carole Youngblood will be the third trial for Alfred Khattar and his son, Ted Robert Tomes, who were charged with unlawful imprisonment and vulnerable adult abuse. Khattar and Tomes allegedly kidnapped 90-year-old Floyd Pickrell from Regency Health Care, 12575 Telegraph, in July 2011. Unlawful imprisonment is punishable by up to 15 years in prison.
Previously, in October 2011 and again earlier this month, hung juries resulted in mistrial and new trials being ordered.
Khattar and Tomes reportedly knew Pickrell as an occasional customer in Khatarr’s coffee shop. Prosecutors maintain that the two men took Pickrell away from the home — security cameras recorded two men lifting Pickrell over a wall before he went missing for three days — and planned to demand ransom money. Defense attorneys told jurists that Khattar and Tomes were asked by Pickrell to rescue him from the senior housing.