Less Than Two Months After Kidnapping in Centerville, Court Proceedings Already Complete for Ellington Man

(Centerville) Court proceedings were quick and swift for an Ellington man who was arrested on the last day of February of 2022 in Reynolds County for kidnapping his girlfriend at a home in Centerville.

35-year-old Douglas Duane Martin decided to waive his arraignment and instead, he pleaded guilty Monday to 2nd degree kidnapping.

Martin was also sentenced Monday.

He was initially given 5 years in prison but was granted a suspended execution of sentence.

Instead, Martin was put on supervised probation for 5 years and he was released from custody.

Sheriff Donald Horn told Regional Radio that Martin was holding his girlfriend inside the house with a firearm and would not let her leave.

When deputies arrived on scene, they were able to talk Martin out of the house without incident.

He also released the woman and she had not been injured.

On a side note, when the first deputy did arrive on scene, an unidentified man was on the lawn with a gun.

The sheriff told us that man had fired his gun inside the home just before the deputy arrived.

The man apparently wasn’t involved in the domestic incident but he had told the deputy he was attempting to protect the woman being held inside the home.

The day after the incident, when the sheriff gave us the information, he said the unidentified man on the lawn with the gun had not been arrested at that time.

Regional Radio will attempt to contact the sheriff to see if anything has changed as far as criminal charges levied against that individual.