[November 21, 2009] Man given two life sentences plus 99 years for kidnapping couple Tweet Nov 21, 2009 (Fort Worth Star-Telegram - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- A 56-year-old Oklahoma man has received two life sentences plus 99 years for his role in kidnapping a Springtown couple during a botched plan to rob a Springtown bank in 2007. A Parker County jury convicted Gary Nolen Huddleston of two charges of aggravated kidnapping and one charge of conspiracy to commit aggravated robbery. Jurors recommended the three sentences Thursday. Huddleston's co-defendant, Cary Deon McGowan, 49, of Fort Worth, remained in the Parker County Jail on Friday, awaiting trial on the same charges. According to prosecutors, on the afternoon of Jan. 16, 2007, Huddleston and McGowan broke into a home in the 2500 block of Texas 199 in Springtown and waited for residents Casey and Dawn McCarter. According to prosecutors, the intruders were after Dawn McCarter, at that time a 15-year employee of a Wells Fargo bank in Springtown. They wanted to use her to gain access to the bank. Casey McCarter arrived home first, and the men, wearing gloves and plastic masks, tied him up, prosecutors said. When Dawn McCarter arrived, they bound her and blindfolded them both. The men questioned her about how to get into the bank. They threatened to shoot Casey McCarter and sever his fingers, prosecutors said. The next morning, Casey McCarter was left at the house while the men took Dawn McCarter to the bank. One of them, however, first went to the home of another bank teller and tried to let the air out of that woman's tires. That's when the plan started to unravel because the teller's husband saw the man near the car and called police. The kidnappers evaded police and released Dawn McCarter. Police embarked on an elaborate investigation of cellphone and cell tower records. During the trial, prosecutors Kathleen Catania and Robert DuBoise showed "a pattern of phone calls between the kidnappers' phones during the morning the bank robbery was to occur," Assistant District Attorney Jeff Swain said. "They also revealed that Huddleston's e-mail address was [email protected]," Swain said in a news release. The trail led to Huddleston's home in Muskogee, Okla., nine months after the crime. Officers obtained a search warrant, and in his house they found "a kidnap starter kit," Swain said. The black bag contained a wig, gloves, "flex cuffs," a police scanner and tools. They also found DNA evidence linking Huddleston to the kidnappings. He was arrested in October 2007. Prosecutors presented evidence that Huddleston was a career criminal with convictions for armed robbery and bank robbery. When McGowan was arrested, authorities said the two men had been cellmates in a federal prison in El Reno, Okla. Huddleston will be eligible for parole in 2037, Swain said. Staff writer Martha Deller contributed to this report, which includes material from the Star-Telegram archives. BILL MILLER, 817-390-7684 To see more of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.dfw.com. Copyright (c) 2009, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Texas Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]