Man Gets 18 Years in Hostage Incident
A man who took hostages in a newspaper office in 1988 pleaded guilty Wednesday in exchange for an 18-year prison sentence.
Eddie Hatcher, 32, pleaded guilty to 14 counts of second-degree kidnaping. The maximum sentence for the charges would have been 420 years in prison.
Timothy Jacobs, who helped Hatcher in the takeover, pleaded guilty to similar charges last summer and was given a six-year sentence as part of a plea bargain.
Hatcher and Jacobs, both Tuscarora Indians, held up to 20 people hostage for 10 hours on Feb. 1, 1988. The two entered the Robesonian newspaper with shotguns and chained the doors shut.
They said their action was to draw attention to their charges of drug trafficking and corruption in county government.
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