By JAMES MITCHELL
Sunday Times Newspapers
TAYLOR — A man prosecutors called the “mastermind” of a plan to abduct an elderly man for financial gain will spend at least four years in prison after being sentenced June 15 by Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Carole Youngblood.
Alfred Khattar was found guilty last month of unlawful imprisonment, conspiracy to commit unlawful imprisonment and third-degree vulnerable adult abuse. Youngblood sentenced Khattar to four to 15 years in prison for the first two counts, and one to two years for the third; the sentences will be served concurrently.
Khattar was found guilty of orchestrating a plan to abduct 90-year-old Floyd Pickrell from his residence at Regency Health Care, 12575 Telegraph, in July 2011.
Last month’s trial was the third proceeding held for Khattar, previously charged as a co-defendant with his son, Ted Tomes, and accomplice Darrell Howard, who pleaded guilty in October 2011 and was sentenced to 2.5 to 15 years in prison.
Previous trials resulted in a hung jury in October 2011 and in February, each declared a mistrial. During last month’s jury trial, Tomes was declared not guilty after testifying that his father — who abandoned the family shortly after Tomes was born and with whom he had only recently began a relationship — asked him to help take care of Pickrell, who wanted to leave the nursing home.
Assistant prosecuting attorney Scott Ehlfeldt said that Khattar was the head of a group of “puppets,” including his son, who masterminded the abduction plot after being removed as a guardian of Pickrell by the elderly man’s family.
(James Mitchell can be reached at [email protected].)