Rodney Helton
GASTON COUNTY, N.C. – A Gaston County man appeared before a judge on Tuesday after he was accused of holding a woman hostage and assaulting her over the weekend.
Twenty-one-year-old Rodney James Helton, Junior was arrested on Sunday after officers talked him out of a wooded area where he was hiding.
Authorities say a Helton’s grandmother, Brenda Smith, came home from church on Sunday to find her grandson with a woman bound by the wrists in her Mount Holly home.
Investigators said Smith called police around 1:15 p.m. and Helton ran out of the house and got into a car with the woman.
Authorities say the woman escaped a short time later. She suffered cuts to her neck, but is expected to survive.
Investigators say 21-year-old Rodney Helton Jr. hid in the woods for about seven hours before a Gaston County Police officer called him on his cell phone and convinced him to surrender.
Helton has been charged with kidnapping, rape, attempted murder and other charges. He remains in jail on a $500,000 bond.
He will be back in court on September 23.
