Federal grand jury indicts truck driver accused of kidnapping 2 children

Man from Jacksonville indicted on 2 counts of kidnapping pleads not guilty

Marshall Pendergrass

A federal grand jury has indicted a truck driver from Jacksonville accused of kidnapping two children from Texas.

The indictment charges Marshall Pendergrass, 47, with two counts of kidnapping. 

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At his arraignment Thursday morning in Flagstaff, Arizona, Pendergrass pleaded not guilty to all counts and waived formal reading of the indictment, according to the federal court docket. The court hearing lasted two minutes.

A jury trial is currently set for May 7 in Phoenix. 

Pendergrass was taken into custody March 16 in northern Arizona after authorities said they found two children who used to live in Jacksonville and who were abducted from Texas held captive in the cab of his semitruck. 

According to a federal complaint obtained last week by News4Jax, the 12-year-old boy and his 14-year-old sister told police that they were kidnapped by the Jacksonville truck driver and bound with zip ties and duct tape during their ordeal.

Pendergrass told investigators he learned the children "ran away" from home and he said he planned to take them back home, the complaint stated.